The Rekindled Assassin (up for adoption)
by Dr. ForgottenFables
Summary: Axel had never been one to give up easy. Even death couldn't stop him. Brought back by a foolish girl's attempts at summoning, the Nobody is back in the land of the living. And he will not rest until he regains what he lost. But what is with these Runes? God's Heart? What a joke. (Side stories involves Xion and Vanitas whose stories unite with the main plot later)
1. Axel 1

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Nothingness. Endless nothingness. Darkness so vast that it consumed even the memories of light's existence. Axel couldn't tell how long he had been in this abyss that put even the World that Never Was to shame, though it couldn't have been that long, since his mind was still intact. It seemed like a fitting enough place for his consciousness to end up, after his last sacrifice for the memory of his true friends.

He was a Nobody. A being without a heart. His body was forged from darkness, so it is only natural that it would return to it. The nothingness was the true nature of a Nobody. They were nothing. They should have never even existed to begin with. After all, what was the point in existing, when you didn't have a heart.

But even so, Axel was glad that he had existed. Because there had been times when he believed that he really 'felt' happy. The times on top of the clock-tower with his two best friends, Roxas, and Xion. Those summer days, joking about the worlds, complaining about their annoying boss, and eating their favorite Sea Salt Ice Cream.

If only the worlds would have let those times go on forever. He won't have even cared about finishing Kingdom Heart and gaining a true heart of his own. Because being with Roxas and Xion, he had felt like he did have a heart. Unfortunately the worlds couldn't just let them be happy. Nobodies didn't have the right to be happy, and so Axel lost them. He lost the only people he cared about.

He had tried to get them back, but in the end, he failed there too. Sora was the good guy, so he won and got to keep on walking around, being real. Not having to care about the Nobodies who lost their lives so that he could have his life back.

These thoughts were the only things keeping him company now. Even without a body or heart, he still had his memories, and they were still wanting. They wanted for everything that he had lost. And he would do anything to get it back.

" _My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe, my divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant..._ " A voice echoed in the darkness. Axel's consciousness could feel the familiar tug of magic. The words didn't seem to fit him at all, but he knew what was going on. It was a summons. A chance to get out of the endless world of darkness. And he grabbed onto it. " _...heed my call, I wish from very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear._ "

* * *

No one had expected anything when Louise the Zero went up to cast her Summon Servant spell. They all knew there would be an explosion like always, but no one thought that she would be able to summon anything. After all, the little pink haired girl had never managed to do anything right in her life, so what would now be any different.

She stood in front of the rest of them, wearing the same school uniform as the rest of them, a white dress shirt and black skirt with her black noble's cape tied with a circle with a symbol of the five pointed star on it. She took one final gulp of air, praying for look before she raised her wand and began to chant. "My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe, my divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant, heed my call, I wish from very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear." She said, a small magical wind causing her long wavy pink hair to flow back.

Sure enough, there was a large explosion that pushed most of the audience back. "Just as you would expect from Louise the Zero!" Guiche de Gramont shouted in frustration at having to be in front of yet another one of Louise's explosion.

Guiche was a blond haired noble who tried to stretch the limits of the dress code at the magical institute, with a more flamboyant shirt that showed off his chest and really tight pants, in order to make himself more appealing to the ladies. Though in true it just made him look like a prick.

Noticing the lack of chiming in from his company, he looked down at another blond haired noble, only this one was a girl with long cruelly hair that stretched all the way down her back. She was staring wide eyed into the dust that was kicked up by the explosion. "What is it my Montmorency?" Guiche asked the noble girl.

Montmorency didn't say anything. She just lifted a finger, pointing into the smoke. There was a figure standing in the dust, hard to make out through all the dirt that was kicked up by the explosion.

"Well, looks like I got to have a really flashy entrance." The figure said in rather cocky voice. The dust settled a bit more to reveal a man with wild, spiky red hair that feel down past his shoulders. He was dressed in a pitch black hooded rob with silver chains and zipper holding it closed, as well as black boots and gloves.

His piercing green eyes swept over the gathered students, as if judging each and every one of them, weighing their value, and if his cocky expression was anything to judge by, he wasn't impressed. He looked like some kind of mobster, with his dark outfit and the clown like tattoos underneath his eyes, like upside down purple tears. And an aura of danger emanated from him, as if he was more than prepared to strike the lot of them down.

A almost spell like silence had gripped the group of students since the man had first spoke, but eventual someone did say something.

"Is that a commoner?" Several dozen voices echoed similar questions. "Louise actually summoner a peasant as a familiar."

But the whispers stopped as the man began to laugh. It was a hollow and wicked sound, as if there was no heart in it. "Commoner? I'm as uncommon as they come." The man said with a grin, pointing a finger at his own chest. "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" He said, tapping the side of his head for effect.

"Who does he think he is?" "Is he some kind of clown?" "Clowns don't dress like that." "He isn't very funny either." The whispers started up again, not that Axel really cared.

His eyes were more focused on the other familiars that had already been summoned. They were an interesting lot, at the very least, ranging from the normal cats and dogs to the fantastical small dragons, giant moles and some flouting eyeball thing. But the thing that annoyed Alex, was that none of them were Nobodies. "It looks like I'm the only one here." He mumbled to himself.

Louise stared at the man standing before her. "This is supposed to be my divine, beautiful, wise, and powerful familiar?" She said weakly, her eyebrow twitching in frustration. "He's just a peasant."

"Exactly what you would expect from someone who boasted like you did, to think you actually summoned up a peasant." Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhalt Zerbst, a bronze skinned red haired woman mocked Louise, causing her fellow class mates to laugh as well.

"Louise the Zero, she always seems to live up to expectations." Malicorne de Grandpré, a rather chubby blond noble brat added as they all laughed at Louise's expense.

"Shut up!" Louise shouted angrily as she listened to their humiliating laughter. She turned to Professor Colbert, the balding instructor who had been overseeing the summoning rituals. "Please, just let me try the ritual again! I'm sure I'll get it right this time!" She begged frantically.

"Absolutely not." Professor Colbert said shaking his head, almost seeming disturbed that his student would even think about requesting such a thing. "The Familiar ritual is a sacred passage. To simply do it over would be an act of blasphemy against our founder himself." He said with a level of finality. "This man is your familiar, Ms. Vallière."

Axel listened intently to their short debate. Some how they had preformed a ritual that had bright him back, even after he had faded into the nothingness. Such a thing should have been impossible. But if he could be reclaimed, what was to say that other couldn't be as well. Could he really call out to his friend? Could he be reunited with Roxas and Xion? He would have to get his hands on the knowledge about the ritual.

"But I've never heard of anyone using a human as a familiar before!" Louise protested, earning more laughter from her classmates.

"Regardless, he had answered your summons, so he is your familiar." Professor Colbert said. "Now complete the ritual, or I will be forced to expel you."

"No way." Louise said, in horror as the other students cheered. She flushed angrily but looked over at the red haired man who stood in the middle of the dead spot of grass that had been cleared by his explosive entrance. He had a smug look on his face as he looked down at her. "You should feel honored. A person of noble birth would usual never do something like this for a commoner." She growled at him as she stomped up to him.

But then she realized she had to tilt her had back just to still see his face. She barely came up to his chest. "Hey! Kneel, so I can finish the contract!" She demanded.

Axel grinned, reached out, placing one hand on her forehead and pushed the pink haired girl over to fall on her but. "Not going to happen." He said with a rather empty chuckle.

"What!?" Louise shouted angrily.

"Look at that, even the commoner doesn't want to be the Zero's familiar!" Someone laughed. But Axel wasn't paying any attention to them. He just grinned down at the little girl.

"I hard what that old man said. If you can't make me your familiar, than you get expelled." He said smugly. Louise's eyes widened. "So if you want to stick around, you are going to have to do something for me."

"You... you're black mailing me!" Louise squealed. "But I am a noble!"

"Hey now, I'm just laying the cards out on the table. Don't get mad at me just because you don't like what I have in my hand." Axel said shrugging. "So you need me as a familiar in order to remain a student at this... school." Axel said looking around at the castle that surrounded them. "So tell me, what's in it for me?"

"What's in if for... I summoned you! So you're my familiar!" Louise shouted. She couldn't believe that this man was trying to bargain with the girl's own future at stake.

"Sorry if you are expecting me to do it out of gratitude. Nobodies like me don't exactly feel those kinds of things." Axel said, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"It is an honor to be a noble's familiar!" Louise tried.

"I care about honor even less than I do about gratitude." Axel said, rolling his eyes at the girl's display. "Tell me what you are going to do for me, if I become your familiar."

"Why should I need to pay you!?" Louise demanded back, seeming to think that Axel was holding out for wages. "The familiar serves its master and in turn the master looks after the familiar."

"So food and shelter, huh?" Axel said, scratching his chin. "Its a start I suppose." Louise blinked in surprise. Was the man's freedom really that cheep? If so, why was he making such a big deal out of this? "But I want just one more thing." Axel said with a grin that sent a shiver up Louise's spin.

"What?" Louise asked, almost afraid of the answer. She covered her small body with her arms, just incase that was what the man was after. He did kind of look like a rapist.

"I want access to all the book this school has on the magic that brought me here." He said with a confident grin. Louise blinked again, her mouth falling open. This man was just a commoner. He couldn't use magic, so why was he interested in the summoning ritual.

"I... I don't know if I can do that." Louise mumbled looking to Professor Colbert. The professor nodded his approval. "Alright then. You have a deal... Familiar." Louise said, trying to keep the indignation out of her voice.

"I thought I already said my name was Axel. Don't tell me you forgot it already." Axel said with his cocky smile. But he went down on one knee.

The laughter of the other students started up again. They had been watching the drama unfold in silence, taking pleasure in seeing Louise squirm, but now they were louder than ever.

Louise glared at them all but she again stepped up to the man she summoned. She pulled out her wand and pointed it straight at the man. "My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar." She said. Then she lowered her wand and leaned forward, kissing Axel on the lips.

The Nobody was a little confused by the action, but he didn't think much of it. The girl leaned back after a second, looking completely humiliated, a look that Axel actually enjoyed seeing. "It's done." She grumbled.

Axel winced in reaction to physical pain that pushed through his body. Steam poured out of his body as he stood their with clenched teeth. It was not like any fire that Axel had ever experienced. It was purer some how, and underneath his skin. The feeling intensified around his chest. It was as if Axel was having his skin cut open by his own Eternal Flames. "What's... happening?" Axel stammered, pressing down his reactions to the pain. It wasn't so bad that he couldn't endure it.

"Your familiar runes are being engraved into you. It won't take long." Louise said. She looked a little too happy about Axel's suffering for the Nobody's liking. She was more than glad to see the one who had publicly humiliated her twitching in pain.

Axel grabbed the zipper on his coat and pulled it down to reveal his bare chest. Confirming three things for the nobles. First, that he didn't wear a shirt underneath that coat. Second, that his chest was smooth and free of hair, as if waxed and that he was heavily muscled, despite his narrow build. And finally, that the runes of a familiar were being burned into his chest. Glowing a bright and angry red before fading into a heavy brown that showed clear against the man's peachy skin.

Axel panted slightly as the process stopped before grinning at the professor. "You satisfied?" He said with his cocky grin. The professor didn't replay. He was staring at the runes with wide eyes. "Um... getting a little close there, doc." Axel said, a little confused at the professor's fascination as he inched closer to Axel's chest, staring at the runes from just inches away.

"What?" Colbert said, coming out of whatever trance he had been in. "Oh, yes, very good. Though I must admit I have never seen that particular combination of runes before." he said before coughing into his hand. "Alright, now that everyone is finished, you are all free to return to your rooms. I encourage you to spend this time to get to know your familiar's better."

The crowd started to disperse and returned to their dorm rooms. Axel walked up to the little pink haired girl. "So, where to?" He asked.

Louise glared at him. "Follow me." She said, still mad about being threatened. She turned and started back to her dorm room. But she did grin to herself. Now that the familiar runes were in place, that attitude wouldn't last too much longer.

Even if she had wanted a more impressive familiar, she could still take some satiation in breaking this rebellious peasant.

* * *

"I can't believe I am stuck with a filthy commoner as a familiar." Louise growled as she sat down on the edge of her bed and crossed her legs. She glared up at Axel who was standing in front of her in an unassuming manner, he lifted one arm to his noise and took a short sniff. He didn't smell that bad. "I wanted something cool, like a griffin, or a dragon. Something that I could rub in Kirche's..." The pink haired mage whined, seeming to hate Axel's mere exitance.

Not that the Nobody really cared. He waited patiently for the girl to just get it out of her system. After all, Nobodies were used to being treated as less than worthless. Creature's that should have never existed in the first place. So Axel was far to used to it to have his feelings hurt. Even if he had feelings to hurt.

Once the girl had stopped to take a breather, Axel took the chance to speak. "So when are you going to get me those books on the summoning ritual?" Axel asked, his vivid green eyes never leaving the girl's face.

"Don't take such a familiar tone with me! You are just a familiar, and you will address me as Master!" She barked angrily.

"And here I thought a familiar should use a familiar tone." Axel joked casual as ever. "Fine, 'Master', when are you going to get me those books on the summoning ritual?"

Louise glared at the flame haired man. "You are over stepping your bonds, Familiar. But if you must know, we cannot get them until tomorrow at the earliest." She spat. "Why do you even care. A commoner like you can't even do magic."

"Alright then, I can wait." Axel nodded, ignoring the second half of her statement. He could be patient. Patients was one of the few virtues a Nobody could possess. "So, where am I to sleep?" He asked.

"Over there." Louise said, pointing at a pill of hay in the corner of the room.

Axel glanced over at it and nodded. "It's functional." He said calmly. He wasn't surprised at the being treated like an animal. She had been expecting to summon an animal anyways.

When Axel looked back he had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. Louise had started taking off her clothes and was changing into a nightgown. Axel only raised an eyebrow. It wasn't like he was going to get embarrassed over the entire thing. He had helped tend to Xion when she was in a coma, and Louise was even flatter than the she had been. Not as cute too, and with a horrible attitude.

But the fact that the girl clearly didn't see him as enough of a person to even bother with basic decency was just a bit more insulting than the usual brand of dehumanization that Nobodies had to endure.

Then to add further insult, the girl threw the clothes at Axel's face, her panties getting caught up in his spiky hair. "I want you to have those washed before tomorrow, and make sure to put out a set out clothes for me tomorrow morning." She demanded as she climbed into bed. "And those ones too." She added, pointing to a basket in a corner of the room beside her cabinet.

"As you wish, my Master." Axel said, bowing slightly before taking the dirty clothes and heading for the door.

Louise grinned, he hadn't even tried to disobey her. The familiar runes had already done their job. And she wouldn't have any more incidents like the summoning ceremony again. Though she still would have preferred a proper familiar. She would still be able to go to the school.

She had no intention of actually letting her familiar study up on the summoning ritual, but she didn't have to tell him that. He would forget all about it soon enough. And if not, she could just order him not to, and he would obey.

* * *

As Axel walked down the stairs he glared down at the laundry in his arms. Like hell would he be doing the girl's chores for her. He would just refold them and tell her he washed them. The stupid brat probably wouldn't even be able to tell the difference for the first few weeks, and by then Axel would have learned everything he had needed to and would be long gone.

' _No, you want Louise to be your master._ '

Axel could only scoff at the runes weak attempts to rewrite him mind and change him. Trying to convince him that it was his own will to serve that pink haired girl. Trying to erase his memories of who he was before he had entered into the contract.

It was pathetic when compared to the power of Castle Oblivion, whose magic could alter reality itself round the memories, even as it changed them. And Axel had spent nearly a month in that stupid castle.

He had gained a resistance to attacks on his memories, and no one could change them, his mind was simply too strong. And no one in there right mind would even actually enjoy being treated like dirt by a bratty self-entitled little bitch like Louise. But Axel was perfectly fine with being given an order that would place him exactly where he wanted to be; around servants.

Axel didn't want to admit to Louise just how little he knew about this world he was in, and even if he had asked her, he would have only been given a description from the point of view of a sheltered little girl. So the Nobody of fire would find someone who would be able to give him a much better picture.

Axel had been to many worlds, and in those worlds he had done horrible things; stealing sacred artifacts, inciting wars, and killing key political figures from the shadows. All in order to drive the citizens to panic and despair so that they would produce more Heartless and Nobodies to further the Organization's plans. Not that he really regretted any of that stuff. But in his time spent undermining world after world, he had found that the best places to gather information on the world itself so that he could create the most chaos, was by visiting pubs or speaking with the servants of the high nobles. That way he could get a good feel for how the world and its people worked.

Axel hadn't been walking long before he spotted what he was looking for. A young girl who looked around sixteen year of age, dressed in a French maid outfit and carrying a basket full of sheets to be laundered. "Jack pot." Axel said with a grin. A young gossiping maid who would more than likely be charmed easily by simple magic to tell him anything he wanted to now, if needed.

"Excuse me miss." Axel said with his most charming smile. The maid turned to him, but finding that she was only staring at a man's chest she arched her head back to look up at the red haired man.

The girl turned bright red and Axel could practically feel the heat coming off of her. He knew he had this kind of effect on human woman. But it was always strange to see it in action. "Um... how... how kind I help you Meister..."

Axel gave a small chuckle. "It's Axel. And you don't need to worry about formalities. Just Axel is find by me." He said giving the girl a wink. Oddly enough for beings who didn't have hearts of their own, Nobodies were extremely talented at manipulating the hearts of others. Or maybe Axel was just well practiced. Either way, the girl's knees didn't look too steady. "How about your name?"

"I'm... I'm Fiesta... I mean Siesta!" She said, quickly correcting herself. Man, she was stumbling with her own name. The girl had shoulder length black hair and black eyes that went well with the maid look. Not that it really mattered to Axel.

"Siesta? Now that's a pretty name." Axel said, nodding. "Well Siesta, I'm new around here and I am afraid that I don't know where I am supposed to go to do my Master's laundry." Axel said, shaking his head and showing the basket. "I would go and ask her, but that would be so improper of me."

"Oh, you're the familiar that Ms. Vallière summoned!" The maid said in surprise.

Axel gave another small chuckle. "I didn't realize I was famous around here already." This was good, he didn't have to explain his situation as much.

"It's all anyone has been talking about." Siesta admitted weakly, rubbing her shoes together. The girl's face was still as bright red as a tomato. "No one had ever heard of a human being summoned as a familiar before."

"Yes, it really is a sad fate." Axel said with a tired sigh. This sudden confession of weakness snapped the girl out of her embarrassed state and further drew her in. "I was called away from all the people I care for in order to be a slave. I can only hope that my little brother and sister are still alright. It had been hard enough on them with our parents dead."

"Oh..." Siesta mumbled, a hand going to her chest as a pained expression crossed her face.

Axel pretended to be surprised by her reaction. "Don't feel bad. It isn't like any of this is your fault." He said with an reassuring smile. "But I really do want to find a way to get back to them... somehow." He said in a longing voice. His mind wonder to those times spent up on the clock tower with Roxas and Xion. Those happy times.

To Axel's surprise, a sharp pain throbbed inside of his chest. Were the runes trying to punish him for not obeying Louise's orders? No. Axel couldn't sense any magic in the pain. So what was it?

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Siesta asked, bringing Axel out of his confused state.

Axel shook his head to clear his mind before giving the girl a sad smile. "You are very kind to offer, but I honestly don't know." He said weakly. "I don't even know where I am right now. Neither my master or any of the other nobles would tell me."

"We're at the Tristain Academy of Magic, located near the boarder between Tristain and Germania." Siesta said, hoping to be able to help in any way she could.

"Tristain..." Axel said slowly looking confused. He shook his had sadly. "I must have been spirited away further than I thought. I've never heard of this country before."

Siesta blinked in surprise. "What? But Tristain is one of the oldest country in all of Halkeginia."

"Then I must really be a hopeless case here." Axel said miserably. "How am I supposed to survive here, when I don't have a clue how this country works. I don't even understand all this nobility versus commoners stuff, or how the government or politics work. I don't even now what a familiar even is." He said, adding a long sigh. "I only hope that I don't mess anything up too badly."

"I... I could help you!" Siesta quickly volunteered. Axel had to suppress a victorious smirk. "I can explain everything while we do the laundry. Just follow me, and I'll lead you to where we keep the cleaning supplies." Axel's eye twitched slightly. Looks like he was going to end up doing Louise's laundry anyways. Oh well, it was a small price to pay. Wasn't like a Nobody like him had any dignity to worry about.

"Well then, I will follow your lead, fair lady Siesta." Axel said, giving a bow and a charming smile in order to insure the girl remained convinced of his act. Siesta's blush returned full force as she nodded silently and turned stiffly on her heels to lead Axel to the cleaning supplies.

Axel smiled as he followed right behind her. She was so willing and ready to help him, even though she would get nothing in return. She was innocent. Not nieve like Louise, but rather untainted by darkness. Kind of like how Namina had been. She knew the darkness better than anyone Axel had ever met, but she still had a certain purity about her.

Axel felt the sharp pain in his chest again, his hand moving up to it. A spot on the left side of his chest. What was that feeling?

It didn't matter. His path was set. And he was a Nobody. He had no heart to feel regret with. Deception was his nature.

* * *

Axel had never known just how tedious doing laundry was. He mimicked Siesta's actions to the best of his abilities, but he realized quickly that if he put too much strength behind it he would simply rip the clothing to pieces. Oh well, it wasn't like Louise would notice if one of her tops suddenly went missing.

"So, what can you tell me about how everything works around here?" Axel asked after a few moments of working in silence.

"Well... I suppose the best place to start would be what a familiar is." Siesta said thoughtfully. "A familiar is a being summoned by a mage in order to act as a sort of servant and life long partner." Siesta explained. "Though since most are animal, this usually just means that they are like pets that the nobles display in order to boast about their element. Actually I have never heard of a human being summoned before."

"Seriously? That was the point of the summons?" Axel said, just a little surprised. He had assumed that he was going to be used as a sort of tool for battle, not as a glorified house dog. Not that it really mattered either way. He had no intention of doing anything that Louise ordered him to in the future. Not unless she could make it worth his time.

"Yes, each year there is a ceremony where the second year students summon their first familiars. It is a tradition that dates back nearly six thousand years. Back to the time of the Founder." Siesta said. Axel was rather impressed. Six thousand years was a long time. Hell he was only around four years old and he had seen witness more than one fall of a kingdom. But just because the magic was old, doesn't mean it was powerful.

"So, this is a magic academy?" Axel asked, trying to steer the conversation along. "Have you managed to pick up any magic while working here?"

Siesta looked surprised that Axel would even ask such a question. It was enough to conferm what Axel had already expected, even before the girl said it. "Oh no. Only the nobility can use magic." She said looking down at the sheets she was laundering. "Everyone who can't use magic... we're just commoners. And the nobles rule over us."

"I see... just how much power do the nobles have over us? What is the limit to what they are allowed to do?" Axel asked. He didn't really see anything particularly surprising or even wrong about the system. After all, the Organization used a similar set up. Though who had true power were at the top, the thirteen seats of the Organization, and they commanded the rest of the Nobodies. Enforcing their will on the weaker beings.

"They can pretty much make us do anything they want. No one would stop them." Siesta said sadly. "Though there are laws that were set up to protect the peasantry, almost none of the nobles obey them, and they are so lax, that even if a nobleman killed a commoner, they are not likely to get more than a slap on the wrist, if they even get that much."

"I see." Axel said, nodding. And he did see. He had seen stuff like it before, and had taken advantage of those situations to insight mass chaos. Give the commoners a little darkness and explain to them that they could attract Heartless to help them fight, giving the powerless power, and they were soon consumed by it. It was a fairly quick why to destroy an entire world. And it hardly took any effort at all. Though that wasn't Axel's objective anymore. "I guess I will need to be extra careful not to give them a reason to want to do anything bad to me then." Axel said giving the girl a charming smile. "Thank you for telling me all this. You've been a great help."

"Y...you're welcome." Siesta said, blushing again as she pushed her black hair out of her face. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Axel."

Axel chuckled. "It's just Axel." Axel stood up and took the half finished laundry with him. He had learned pretty much the basics of how the world functioned, and the details would be gained through more experience.

He was rather curious as to why only some people in this world were able to use magic. Sure the more powerful magic spells that were specific to an individuals nature were not something that were easy to developed, but the basics could be picked up by even someone how was a complete incompetent in it, with no talent what so ever.

So there must have been something about the magic in this world that made it different than the magic he practiced. This would have to be the first thing Axel would have to research. The first clue on how he was brought back from the nothingness, and how he could get his friends back.

Once he got back to Louise's room he found the small 'master' already asleep in her bed. Well, at least he wouldn't have to listen to her bitch anymore until the next morning. Axel weighed the option of simply killing the girl so he wouldn't have to deal with her, but that might make it more difficult to get what he was after. So even though she was a royal pain, she would get to live for a while longer. Who knows, maybe after everything was over, he wouldn't even have a good enough reason to expend the energy needed to kill her, if she was lucky.

But for now he would just have to work towards his objective, and for that, a connection to a school for this world's magic could come in handy. Especially since she had a stack of textbook on the basics of magic.

Axel grinned to himself as he grabbed the book. 'A Beginner's Guild from Dot to Line Magic', Axel had no idea what that meant, but if it was a beginner's guild, then it would be a good start.

He turned away from Louise's desk, book in hand and summoned a Corridor of Darkness. A pool of dark magic that could be used to connect between any two points, even in between worlds. Though to going from world to world took a bit more energy, and Axel had no intention of leaving yet. Instead he was just going to the top of the central tower of the academy.

Axel liked high places. Sitting on the ledge, looking out as far as the eye could see before the curve of the world cut off the view. Wind pushing passed your ears, and flowing through your hair. Eating ice cream as you laughed with your friends... Axel winced as his chest stung again. Why was that happening? Every time he thought about his old friends, that sensation in his chest returned.

Axel exited the Corridor to find that he was not the only one how had gone to enjoy the open air.

Sitting on a bench near the edge of the roof was a little girl. She was small, only coming up to Axel's waist, and was dressed in the same school uniform as all the other students. If Axel had to guess her age just by appearance, he would have said she was only twelve or thirteen years old, but since she was a student at the school, she had to be the same age as the rest of them. Which would mean she was probably around fifteen or sixteen.

Her hair was a bright sky blue, even lighter than Saïx's hair had been. A magic staff that was around six inches taller than she was rest against her shoulder as she read from a small brown book.

But much more surprising was the fifteen foot dragon who's head was resting in the girl's lap. The dragon's scales were a much darker blue as the little girl's hair, more of an ocean blue than a sky, and it seemed to be purring as the girl pet its head lightly.

But as the Corridor of Darkness closed behind him, the dragon seemed to take notice of Axel's presence. It lifted it's head and looked in his direction, with huge turquoise eyes. It made a loud questioning sound as it stared at Axel.

"Who's there?" The girl asked. Her voice was extremely quiet and just a little rough, as if it wasn't used very often. She turned her head and looked straight up at Axel with crystal blue eyes, that caught the Nobody by surprise.

Though he was seeing them from the other side of some red rimmed glass, they looked exactly the same as Xion's eyes from when she was first starting out. The same slightly void yet intelligent expression that locked onto Axel, drinking him in and quietly considering his presence.

After a second Axel managed to get a hold of himself. "Sorry, I didn't realize this roof top was already taken." He said scratching the back of his head, trying to shake of the feeling that was gripping him in his chest. "I was just looking for a quiet spot to do some light reading." Axel said shaking the book in his hand. "I see you had the same idea."

The girl stared at him for a few seconds in complete silence before nodding and turning back to her book. "Join." She said simply.

Axel blinked. The girl didn't seem to be one for words, but he was pretty sure she was inviting him to sit with her and read. "Don't mind if I do." Axel said walking over and sitting down on the opposite side of the bench as the little girl before flipping open the book. "By the way, my name's Axel. Got it memorized?" He said, grinning slightly as he used his catch phrase.

"Tabitha." The girl responded in a flat tone as she returned to her own book.

With two extremely large and bright moons over head, it wasn't difficult to read, even though the sun had gone down. Axel didn't even have to strain his eyes as he skimmed through the pages.

Axel found the magic of this new world to be rather odd. Instead of storing and building up magic within their own bodies, the people of this world would focus their will into instruments like wands or staffs, and then use those to direct the magic in the air.

It had its advantages, such as being able to experiment with new formulations without having to worry about completely destroying the uses body in the process, or continuing to control a spell even after the magic spell is cast. But it also had its set backs. The magic was limited by the amount of energy the wand could amass and the formulations took longer to gather and convert the magic, making for longer cast times and weaker spells.

It also seemed to be limited to just five elements, which Axel found rather curious. As far as Axel was aware their were twelve types of magic, each existing in pairs; fire and ice, water and lightning, earth and air, time and space, light and dark, heart and nothingness. But the book only made not of four types; fire, water, earth and air. Their were methods of achieving the same results, such as summoning a bolt of lightning by using air currents to generate the electricity, but it was just a weak imitation and used up a lot of unnecessary energy. There were spells like Silence that didn't seem to be within that mold, but in the end they were all really just made of those same four elements. Silence just forced the air to be still, making it so that sound couldn't travel.

Though as Axel read more and more he kept coming back to his man question, how did the summoning ritual work? None of these elements could explain it. There had to be more. He could still feel the runes on his chest, and that was clearly Nothingness Magic. It was the only thing that Axel knew of that could erase memories.

"Kuu!" The dragon whined, pushing it head into Axel's lap.

"Hey!" Axel shout in surprise as he suddenly found a giant dragon's head on his legs. He had been up their for a few hours and the dragon seemed to want his attention. "Hey now, I was still reading." Axel complained but the dragon seemed very insistent, pushing its hand further into Axel's chest. "Fine, I get it, you want me to pet you." Axel said with a loud sigh. The dragon was as stubborn as Roxas.

"Sylphid." Tabitha said in that simply way she had and the dragon stop, looking over at the little girl.

"Sylphid. Is that her name?" Axel asked the tiny mage who nodded.

"Late." Tabitha said, closing her book and standing up. Sylphid ran around to the other side of the bench and lowered her head so that Tabitha could easily climb on the dragon's back. "Again tomorrow." Tabitha said, nodding at Axel before Sylphid took to the air.

Axel watched her flying away. He raised one eyebrow. "I think I just got invited to come back sometime." He mused before getting up. It really was getting late, and even Nobodies needed sleep. Hell, Roxas once slept for an entire month.

So Axel called on another Corridor of Darkness to take him back to Louise's room. He placed the book back on her desk before looking over at the small patch of hay. He throw a glare at the little girl who was sleeping soundly in her soft bed but then he just sighed. There was no point in getting upset about it.

So he laid down on the cow feed and tried his best to get comfortable. He was going to need his sleep if he was going to put up with more of Louise's shit tomorrow.

* * *

 **Complete chapter 1**


	2. Vanitas 1

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Prince Joseph de Gallia was a miserable man, the embarrassment of his entire nation. Someone who his father had desperately tried to keep out of the public eye to hide his shame at what his blood had managed to produce. For the Prince was unable to wield magic.

In the land of Halkeginia, magic was everything. To have magic was to be blessed by the Founder, and to lack it was to be low born scum. So for a prince of a nation to be unable to cast the simplest of spells was a disgrace to the entire country.

His father had always hated him for it, preferring his younger brother, Charles, despite Joseph being the oldest son. Charles was the better son, the better mage. He had everything, a beautiful wife and daughter, the respect and admiration of the people, the love of their parents. Joseph was denied all of it, and in the end, when their father passed away, it was Charles and not Joseph who was named the next to take the throne.

It wasn't fair. Joseph had tried everything, every spell and potion to try to get his magic to finally work, but it was no good. No matter which spell he tried, they all ended the same, he would to filled with an uncontrollable muscle spasm that would leaving him riving in pain. He was a failure, an nothing, a worthless no good bastard rejected by his own father.

With the death of his father and his brother's upcoming coronation, Joseph had become desperate to get something, anything to work. So in secret, he set up a ritual to summon a familiar.

It was considered taboo for a member of the Royal Families to use a summon servant ritual. Not necessarily forbidden, or anything that could be punished, it was just taboo. But Joseph didn't care. What did it matter since he wouldn't be a Royal for much longer at this rate. He didn't think that his brother would openly cast him out, but some of the other nobles might pressure him to force the young man to drop 'de Gallia' from his name, something that Joseph was horrified would happen.

So he did it, in secret he cast the spell. "I, Joseph de Gallia, in the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar." Joseph said, trying to keep his voice steady as he braced himself. As usual, his body was racked with pain an his legs cramped as he fell to the ground. He closed his eyes tight, grinning his teeth in order to stop himself from screaming.

But when his eyes cracked open he saw it, a green oval flouting in the air before him. "Fa...familiar?" He stammered as he regained control of his mouth.

A cold laugh filled the air and the Prince shivered. "Look at you, so pathetic." A young but cruel voice said mockingly. The oval slowly disappeared, and were it had been stood a figure dressed in a strange tight fitting black leather jumpsuit that was covered in red lines. It was just a boy, probably around fourteen years old, though his hair was a mixture of black and gray, poking out all over the place.

Joseph's eyes widened in horror as black smoke drifted off of the boy's body, curling around him and tinting the very air, making the boy harder to see in the already dark room. But his eyes. His eyes glowed a hideous pale gold that made the young prince swear that the boy wasn't human.

"Well well well, now how did I get here?" The boy said in a voice that was halfway between angry and just plan psychotic.

"I... I summoned you." Joseph said, it took everything he had to speak. He wanted to just shut his eyes and pray that this creature would just disappear. But if he did, then Joseph would have to admit that he was a complete failure. That the ritual had not worked.

"That you have, which is rather surprising." The boy said walking up to the man who had managed to get into a kneeling position as he tried to get up off of the floor. "I suppose I should thank you for that." He said with a grin. Joseph eyes widened at hearing it, that he was to be thanked for summoning this demon. "My name is Vanitas, tell me who you are." It wasn't a request, it was an order.

Joseph straightened himself up as much as he could, managing to equal the boy in height, despite being on his knees. "I am Prince Joseph de Gallia."

Vanitas laughed causing the Prince to shrink back a little before regaining his back bone. "Well then 'Prince'. I will grant you something that you seriously lack." Vanitas said grinning wide. "Power." Joseph's eyes widened at the words. "But if you are to gain this, you must lose something. So tell me, do you want the power I can give you? The power to do whatever you want?"

Joseph didn't know what to do. This was almost certainly a deal with the devil. But... it was everything he had always desired. The one thing he had always wanted.

"Do it." Joseph said, not even asking the price.

Vanitas's eyes flared and the next thing Joseph knew, he had a strange, black, key-like blade shoved into his chest. Joseph gasped, his eyesight blurring as a red crystal heart appeared from were the tip of the blade met his chest, flouting out into the air before being swallowed by the shadows.

"So, how do you feel?" Vanitas said.

The prince looked up again, but now his eyes were as cold as the boy's. "Feel? I do not feel." He said in a much deeper voice than before. He took his wand and drove it into the boy's throat, causing Vanitas to sputtered.

Vanitas's body began to smoke and he lifted his right hand as it began to glow. A set of runes had been burned into his skin, burning so hot that they had been burned into his suit as well.

The prince turned away from the boy as Vanitas steadied himself. "Come. We must take is rightfully mine."

Vanitas grinned as the runes on his hand began to glow. Pools of darkness filled the room and monstrous dark blue shadow like creatures stared to form out of the shadows.

"As you wish... my new Master."

* * *

 **This is no longer going to just be a one shot.**


	3. Axel 2

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

'What is this? What the hell is this!?' The words echoed through Axel's mind as he stared up at the man who was slowly approaching him. Axel couldn't move. His entire body was frozen with fear as he looked upon what must have been the face of darkness itself.

The man was bleeding a twisted dark aura over his white lab coat. His long white hair was pushed back out of his face to reveal his pale golden eyes which locked onto Axel as he slowly approached. A demon mad of pure darkness stood behind the man, as if it was his own shadow. It's huge arms spread wide as it's presence fulled the empty metal corridor with an almost physical sense of emptiness.

"And this one, will make eight." The man said with a hollow, uncaring voice as he lifted up a sickly looking weapon. The thing was the most demonic looking Keyblade that Axel could have imagined, the whole thing was a mixture of silver and blade, with a goat demon's head as the guard and a twisted blade mass for the tooth.

Axel didn't know what to think. He didn't have time to think as the man seemed to disappear, only to reappear just two feet in front of him. The demon reached around him, grabbing Axel by the shoulder, lifting him up off the ground. Axel tried to struggle, but then he stopped as he felt the head of the Keyblade being driven into his body.

Axel woke up, covered in a cold sweet, a scream in his ears. But the scream wasn't his. "I slept in!" Louise wailed as she was throwing off her blankets and running around the room like a chicken with it's head cut off. "You stupid familiar! Why didn't you wake me up!?"

"Wha..?" Axel was still shaking off the affects of the dream. He couldn't remember having ever dreamed before. And the entire thing had seemed so real. That strange feeling was hammering inside of his chest hard enough to cause Axel's whole body to tense up.

"Aren't you awake yet, you dumb dog!" Louise barked at Axel, standing over his spot on the floor with her hands on her hips. She was still wearing nothing but her night gown, leaving almost everything open to see.

"Jeez, what's your..." Axel stared, rubbing the back of his head as he gave a short yawn, but the girl planted a foot on his face, pushing him back to the ground.

"Wake up and help me get ready, you worthless mutt!" Louise shouted angrily.

Axel had to surprise a growl as he felt something boiling up inside him. But all he said was. "If you want something, then you probably should ask. I'm not a mind reader, and even if I was, I wouldn't be able to tell what you are thinking." Axel spat.

"Don't take that kind of tone with me!" Louise shouted, pointing her wand at Axel's face. The Nobody didn't even flinch as he stared up at the girl. He was considering snapping off that arm and just going back to sleep. He was in no mood for this kind of shit. He had never been a morning person, preferring the late after noons and night time to the wee hours of the day.

"Then give me an order, 'master', or let me go back to sleep." Axel said coldly.

Louise pulled the wand out of his face and crossed her arms. "Then dress me." She said with a straight face.

"Dress you..." Axel repeated the instruction with a certain level of disbelief. "Do you seriously need help getting dressed? Even Roxas wasn't that bad, and he was a mindless vegetable."

Louise bared her teeth at the red haired Nobody. "Don't be stupid! A noble never dresses themselves when they have servants on hand! Now stop whining, before I decide to take away your lunch as well as your breakfast as punishment for your behavior!"

Axel closed his eyes. What ever, he could steal some food if he needed too. Though the fact that the girl had promised him food and shelter for being her familiar did leave him slightly peeved that she was hardly giving him either of those things. "Fine." Axel said with a sigh, getting up and grabbing her clothes.

It wasn't like this was the worst order he had ever been given. After all, he had once been order to kill of all his coworkers in Castle Oblivion. That was a pain in the ass, even if Sora and the Replica Riku had done a good deal of the work for him.

"There, you're dressed." Axel grumbled as he finished tying the girl's cape on. "Now if you don't care about me, I'm going back to sleep." He turned away from the little girl and was starting to lay back down in his stack of hay when she grabbed onto his hood and started pulling on it, as if trying to choke him.

"You will be escorting me to the dining hall. Don't you know anything about being a familiar?" Louise said as she pulled Axel away from his pitiful excuse for a bed.

"No I don't!" Axel shouted angrily, he really was not a morning person, and he was just inches away from killing the girl and seeing if he would pull together enough memory altering magic to erase her from existence. "And I'm pretty sure you are just making this crap up as you go along!"

Louise stumbled back as Axel pushed her away. She glared at the rebellious man who seemed to care nothing about his station in life. "That is it, no lunch for you! I thought after yesterday you were starting to understand your place, but I guess you still need some educating, you worthless dog!"

"Funny, coming from the teenage girl who can't even dress herself." Axel said with a shrug, though he found nothing funny about this situation. He turned away from the girl once more and laid down on his bed of hay. He closed his eyes and was trying to get back to sleep when he felt something being placed around his neck and heard a small clicking sound.

His eyes shot open and he reached for his neck to find that there was a balky dog collar around it, a magic lock holding it closed around his neck and a chain which Louise was holding onto. Axel raised a questioning eyebrow. "Why do you even have this? Seem's rather kinky for a proper girl to own. Should have known you like it dirty." Axel said, taunting the girl even as he had to push down the almost overwhelming desire to inform her of her place in the grand scheme of things. But no, he still needed those books on the summoning ritual. He couldn't kill her just yet.

Louise blushed as Axel's words but that didn't stop her from pulling on the chain to force Axel up. "You are escorting me to breakfast! Now move it, you good for nothing familiar!"

'It's for Roxas and Xion... it's for Roxas and Xion...' Axel kept repeating to himself as he was half dragged to the door. But this pretty much clenched it. After he was finished with the summonings, this girl was 'so' dead.

* * *

Everywhere Axel went there were people whispering and pointing at him. Most of them being girls. He supposed that he managed to gain the attention of nearly every girl in Louise's class when he had unzipped his top to reveal his familiar runes.

Perhaps the fetishistic collar and chain were giving them the wrong ideas. Not that Axel really cared. Such talk was rather amusing to him, as it made his 'master' squirm and forced her to defend her 'honor'. It was like one big joke.

A less funny joke was how he was being made to stand at attention behind the little brat while she ate. The dining hall was rather over the top and brightly lit. With five long tables for the nobles to sit at and more than enough spots and food for everyone. But still Axel was made to stand and go without food.

"Stop glaring at me." Louise snapped. She could feel Axel's heated glare on the back of her neck.

"I don't know what you are talking about, 'Master'. This is just how my face looks." Axel said with a calm voice.

"Why are you treating your familiar so poorly, Zero." Kirche said as the red haired mage sat down in the seat across from Louise. Mocking the little pink haired girl with a smile. Axel was a little surprised when he saw Tabitha take the seat next to the red haired mage. The little blue haired girl was still absorbed in one of her books, but she did give Axel a nodded, as if to acknowledge his presence. Axel returned the nod.

"Quiet, Zerbst!" Louise growled at her family's enemy. "How I discipline my familiar is none of your business!"

"Now that isn't very nice. He may be a familiar but he is still a human being." Kirche pouted, her eyes scanning over Axel. "And a fine specimen at that." She said licking her lips. Axel couldn't help but think that the comment was a little wrong. After all, he wasn't a human being.

Louise slammed her hands against the table, causing some of the plates to shake a bit. "You stay away from my familiar, Zerbst!" Louise spat angrily. "He belongs to me, and I will not have a Zerbst stealing a single dog from me or my family."

Kirche just laughed. "He belongs to you? Oh please, you had to bribe him just to seal the contract, we all saw it."

Axel picked up on this. "Speaking of which, master." Axel said looking down at the pink haired mage. "When are you going to get me those books on the summoning ritual?"

"Are you still on about that!?" Louise snapped angrily. "You are just a commoner, you can't use magic, so there is no need for me to waste my time getting you those books!" She said angrily. "As your master, I order you to forget about it!"

Louise turned back away from Axel again, but was only confronted by Kirche's grinning face. But the grin slowly died and was replaced by shock. Louise momentarily wondered what was the matter when she felt something. Fear gripped her as something changed in the air.

"So, you are going to go back on our agreement." Axel growled, anger clear in his voice. Louise turned around to see the man towering over her, his bright green eyes glaring holes through her as a scowl spread across his face. Louise didn't understand why, but she was afraid. Afraid of this commoner familiar who towered over her. "Well then, consider yourself familiarless." Axel spat as he turned and walked away.

Louise didn't move, should couldn't even bring herself to be outraged. She could only feel relieved as the creature that had brought about that feeling of fear was leaving. Only once the familiar had fully left the dining hall did Louise dare to breath again. And it was only then that she started to get angry. "That stupid dog... how dare he talk to me like that." She said angrily. But she still didn't get up to go after him. She just returned to her meal, trying to forget the fear that had overcome her 'rule of steel'.

Neither she, nor Kirche noticed when Tabitha left the dining hall to follow the angry familiar. They had to many other things on their minds. The same question that many of the people in the hall were thinking.

'What had Louise the Zero summoned?'

* * *

Axel punched the wall of the castle hard enough to leave crack in it. "How dare that bitch try to double cross me." Axel growled to himself through gritted teeth. Sure he had no intention of holding up his end of the deal any longer than needed, but he was not used to being betrayed.

He wasn't even sure why he was so mad. He had never been so quick to anger before. So why now? He closed his eyes and shook his head only to hear the jingling of the chains around his neck. It just made him angrier. No one had ever treated him so poorly in his life. Even his enemies who didn't see him as even real existing where not as insulting as this little pink haired brat.

His hand shot up and grabbed at the lock. Its magical reinforcement didn't last as Axel turned up the heat, his black gloved hand glowing red hot as melted the metal lock off before pulling the entire collar off his neck and throwing it to the ground.

"Dammit. I'm wasting time. I need to... I need to..." Axel stammered as he searched for the right words. He needed to find another way of getting the information he was looking for. But he didn't know how. He figured that if the other nobles were anything like his 'master' than they would turn him away if he tried to get them from the library himself, and he didn't know where they were, so he couldn't just steal them.

"Don't give up. You just need to figure a few things out and then you'll be golden." He mumbled to himself as he cycled through his options. His thoughts were disrupted when his stomach growled. Great, he was hungry. He hadn't actually eaten anything since the last time he had died. So he was going to have to take things one step at a time. First fine a servant, then follow them to the kitchen to steal some...

"Hungry?" Axel opened his eyes and turned his head to see Tabitha standing there with a questioning tilt of the head. For a few seconds her void expression had made him wonder if the girl was somehow a Nobody herself.

Axel's stomach growled again. "I guess I am." He admitted rubbing the back of his head. What was the girl doing there? Why was she staring at him?

Tabitha nodded. She then turned around and started to wake away. Axel just stood there in a daze until the girl turned back to him, noticing that he wasn't following. "Come." She said. It wasn't a request, or an order. Just her saying what she was expecting him to do.

Axel wondered what she wanted but finally shrugged and started to follow her. She lead him back into the castle through a side door and down into a underground kitchen were the servants of the castle were working on cleaning up after the nobles' breakfasts.

Axel looked around the kitchen. The smell was horrible and the air was thick since the smoke from the stoves didn't have anywhere to escape from other than the door which had been left open, but without any breeze such measures were insufficient. In the corner of the room there was a box in the wall that could be used to raise and lower plates to the room above.

The entire system must have been set up so the nobles wouldn't have to see the kitchen staff more than absolutely necessary. It was disgusting, they considered themselves so far above the Commoners that they believed they shouldn't even have to look at them.

Tabitha raised her staff and mumbled a few words. The cooks looked a little surprised for a second as the still and smoky air of the kitchen suddenly cleared as all of the smoke was pulled out of the door by a sudden surge of wind. One of the cooks, a large man with tanned skin who looked a little unshaven turned and saw them at the door. "Oh, Lady Tabitha, what brings you down here?" The man said with a smile. Axel wondered if he was really happy to see Tabitha, or if it was just a front that he put up in her presence out of fear of punishment.

"Needs food." Tabitha said as she pointed her staff at Axel. The red haired Nobody blinked in surprised.

"Well it's my job to feed." The man said putting his hands on his hips. "So boy, there are plenty of left overs from the nobles' breakfast. You can have that or I can whip you up something fresh."

"Leftovers are fine." Axel said, still surprised that they would feed him. Why? What was in it for them?

The cook went and grabbed a few plates of food and dropped them on a table. "Go ahead and eat your fill. You look a little on the thin side." He said with a proud grin.

"Th...thank you." Axel said, the words felt foreign in his mouth. And expression of gratitude. He had never needed such a thing. No one had ever done anything for him without expecting something in return. Not even once. He couldn't help but wonder if these people wanted something from him. He went down his mental list of what it could be, but he couldn't think of anything. They didn't know of his power. He didn't have any political influence. He didn't even have any form of money or intell that they might want. So why were they being nice to him?

He slowly ate the food that he had been given. It was far better than the stuff that they had back in The World that Never Was. Nobodies didn't exactly make the best cooks. Everything was just meant for substance without any consideration for taste. What need did they have for something that tasted good? Without hearts, they couldn't even properly enjoy it.

But despite this fact, Axel found that he actual was enjoying the food. It was another thing that shocked and confused him. Why was he able to do such a thing.

He felt a tug on his sleeve and turned his head to see Tabitha looking up at him with her crystal blue eyes. For a held breath's second, Axel thought it was Xeon looking up at him. But he slowly realized it wasn't as his eyes were drawn to a book the girl was holding out to him. "For me?" Axel asked confused. The girl nodded wordlessly.

Axel took the book and looked at its title; 'Oldest Spells of Halkeginia: The Founder's Gifts'. Axel noticed one of the pages had been book marked and opened the book up. His eyes widened as he realized that it was a chapter describing the history of the summoning ritual. His eyes flashed up to the little girl. It wasn't much, but it was certainly a start.

"You wanted?" Tabitha said simply.

"Yes... But why?" Axel asked confused. "Why are you helping me? Why are you being... nice to me? What do you get out of it?"

Tabitha shook her head. "Nothing." She said simply and looked up at him with her blue eyes. "Friends." Axel was too shocked to respond. He just stared at the girl until she turned and walked away.

"I was wrong..." Axel mumbled as he watched her go. He had thought that she was like him. That she had no emotions. That she had no heart. But in reality she was the logical opposite of the higher ranked Nobodies.

The members of the Organization chairs all play acted at having emotions in order to hide what they were and try to add meaning to there lives. But Tabitha did have a heart. She was just pretending to be emotionless in order to protect it.

Axel thought about Saix, the blue haired member of the Organization. He had been the most heartless one of them, the one that had never even pretended to have emotions. But at the same time, he was the one that claimed that he could remember what it had been like to have a heart. To remember what it was like to feel, before he had become a Nobody.

Axel had never really believed him. Most of the Nobodies remembered bits of their previous lives, but not about the actual emotions. But maybe he really had remembered. And it was that memory that had made him act so heartless. The pains of the heart causing them to isolate themselves from others.

Axel shook his head. He was reading to much into this. The important thing was that he had something to go on. A place to start so that he could find a way to reunite with his old friends.

Axel couldn't explain it. But at that moment, his chest felt warm in a way that he couldn't ever remember it feeling. It was... nice.

* * *

Axel was leaving the underground kitchen, the book held in front of him in one hand as he scanned over the words on the page. It was fairly informative, giving a loose description of what the ritual required to work, the type of circles, the positioning of the moons and the sun which made the spell only usable four times a year. But the most important aspect seemed to be the summoner themselves.

It must have been gilded by Heart magic, with space and time magic to actual pull the familiar from wherever it was being summoned from.

Heart magic based on the resonance of the bonds between individual elements. Whether those elements be objects or people. The summoning ritual found a familiar that suited the magic of the summoner. So someone with a water element would summon a creature that was well in tuned with water, someone with fire would someone a fire creature, and so on.

So how did Louise summon Axel? Did she have a connection to a fire element and Axel just happened to be summoned? If so, then Axel would be in for some trouble. After all, both Roxas and Xion had a high potential for the 'light' element. Something that was rare to say the least. And how would he force the summoner to summon his friends instead of some other beast of light.

Axel was disappointed when he found that if a mage had a living familiar then they would not be able to preform the ritual. So he couldn't just force Louise to recast the summons again and again. The Nobody of fire would have too keep a close eye on Louise to see what kind of magic she had. It could be the key to everything.

"Familiar!" Axel inwardly groaned as he heard his 'master''s voice. No one had ever made him as mad as this little girl with pink hair. At least, not without getting a blade stuck into there just before being detonated, turning the annoyance into just a cloud of red mist and a lingering smell of burned flesh. "Who have you permission to leave me!?" She shouted.

Axel knew it was a rhetorical question, but he answered anyways. "Why I did. Since you aren't going to abide by the rules of our agreement, then I will not act as your familiar. That's how things are going to be. Got it memorized?"

"What!? How dare you!?" She growled before noticing the book. "Where did you get that? You stole a book!?"

"No, it was given to me." Axel said before turning his back on her and walking away.

"Hey, I didn't give you permission to leave!" Louise shouted after him.

"Tell it to someone who cares!" Axel called back as he glanced back down at the book. As he walked he passed a bunch of other students who were all in the courtyard sitting at small tables and playing with their more animal like familiars.

Spotting an empty table Axel sat down to continue to read the book. He was pretty sure he could mimic this worlds magic using the skills he already possessed. It would only require him to creature some minor alterations to his internal magics matrix in order to open him up to controlling the magic in the air.

The only problem was that he was extremely poor at Heart based magic. He was fair enough at most types of magic, though his specialty was fire, he could still use most of the others to a certain extent. The only ones he had no talent whatsoever in were time and heart. The only Nobody who had a good grasp of heart based magic was Namine. And Axel had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't ever even really a Nobody to began with.

Axel was trying to decipher the exact magical formular for the summonings when he felt something press up against his shoulder. "Kuuu!"

Axel glanced over to see the dragon, Sylphid trying to press her head underneath his free hand. Axel lifted up the hand and started to stroke the dragon's head. He looked across the table to see Tabitha sitting there, reading from her own book. "Well we met again. Thank's for the book, it was just what I needed." Axel said with a grin. He was putting up his false front, the charming man, the face he used to trick people into helping him. He felt a sting in his chest. Guilt at acting that way towards this girl who thought of him as a friend.

"That's good." Tabitha said with a nodded, not looking up from her own book.

"Mr. Axel?" Axel turned his head to see the maid girl from the night before. Axel couldn't remember he name, he didn't feel like it was all that important. Just another faceless person who he had used to get what he wanted. But it was best not to let the human know that. Don't burn bridges if you don't have to.

"I thought I told you to drop the mister." Axel said with a smile.

"Oh, sorry." The maid said with an embarrassed giggle. "But I'm surprised to see you hear without your master. Shouldn't you be with Mrs. Vallière?"

"The two of use are having a falling out, if she doesn't feel like keeping up her end of our deal, then I'm not going to keep up mine." Axel said with a dismissive shrug. "She can try to order me around all she wants. I'll just ignore her."

"Wha... what?" The maid said in shock. "But... you can't. If you make a noble mad, they could... um..." She glanced at Tabitha, obviously scared of saying something she couldn't.

"Bad things." Tabitha finished for the girl.

Axel smiled. "It's sweet that you are worried about me." He said causing the maid to blush a deep red. "But you don't have to worry. I'm a big boy and can take care of myself." He said closing his eyes and giving the same goofy smile that he had always seen Roxas and Xeon use. The one that could let them get away with murder if they wanted.

"I..." The maid couldn't speak, she was too embarrassed. She turned on her heels and darted off, clutching a serving tray to her chest so hard that she was bending the metal.

Axel sighed and turned back away. "Why?" Tabitha asked. Axel looked up at her and knew what she meant. Why had he pretended to be nice to her?

Axel weighed his options. He could lie. He was pretty good at lying. But for some reason... "She might be useful to me later on. Best to keep up a pretense of good relations." Axel admitted, all humor gone from his face. Tabitha nodded, understandingly. "I really don't understand you though. You can tell what I am really like. But you still want to be friends. Why? Why would you want to be friends with someone that does not have a heart?"

Tabitha tilted her head. "Hearts hurt." She said simply before turning back to her book, as if that was all there was too it.

So that was it. The girl had locked away her own heart in order to protect herself.

Axel stared at her for some time, absent mindedly petting Sylphid as he watched her read. She reminded him so much of Xeon during her early days. Back when she was just a doll and not a person. He missed her. And he hated himself for bringing her back. For not letting her escape, all because he was selfish. And because of him... Roxas was forced to kill her.

"You stupid maid!" Axel glanced over to see a blond noble boy standing over the maid who had fell to the ground, her tray and the food she had been carrying scattered across the ground around her.

"Please forgive me, Master Guiche." The maid begged as she put her arms up to protect herself. "I... I was just... I was returning your letters..."

"Couldn't you see I was with someone else? Because of your thoughtless actions the honor of those two poor ladies are ruined." Guiche said as he pulled up a rose. He mumbled a few words and flicked the flower, causing it to be turned into a thorned whip. "It seemed like I will have to teach you a lesson in tact."

The noble snared down at the girl. The whip sailed through the air and struck the girl across her raised arms. She cried out in pain, but no one was coming too her aid.

Axel watch. It was a bit of a shame, but no skin off his bones. It wasn't like he had invested anymore than some pretty words in the girl. She was replaceable to him. Something that he had just used to achieve a goal, and nothing more. She didn't even have a name to him.

But even so... Axel felt a sharp pain inside of his chest as he watched the girl cry.

"Let this be a lesson to you about being grateful that we even allow you to work for us!" Guiche shouted as he swung the whip upwards, striking the girl across the face. Blood started to trickle down the girl's face. Axel's eyes followed the trail of blood and he started to grid his teeth. The pain in his chest was growing stronger by the second.

"Please... I'm sorry." The maid cried weakly.

"Words of apology from a commoner are worthless!" Guiche shouted as he raised the whip again. The maid closed her eyes, preparing herself for another blow. But it never came.

She looked up to see Axel standing over her, the whip held tight in is black gloved hand. "Wha... what do you think you are doing!?" Guiche demanded of Axel as he tried to pull the whip out of his hand. "Let go! Let go I say!"

Axel did as he was told and the lord fell on his butt, causing a small amount of laughter from the other nobles who had been watching him whipping the maid. Guiche gritted his teeth. "Who do you think you are? Getting in the way of a nobleman like that?" Guiche said angrily. Axel didn't respond. He didn't say a word. He just stood there like a statue, glaring straight past the noble boy, as if he wasn't even worth looking at.

"What a second... you are the Zero's familiar, aren't you?" Guiche demanded, but Axel still didn't answer. "You believe that you can simply insult me like this, without consequences? You are still just a peasant." He said angrily, the whip changed back into a rose and he raised it again, pointing it at Axel. "I challenge you to a duel!"

A few seconds passed before the reply came. "It's your funeral." Axel said, his voice as cold as ice. Guiche flinched as the Nobody's green eyes locked onto him. "If it is a fight you want. Then it will be a fight you are going to get."

* * *

Guiche looked more than a bit surprised as he heard the red haired man's response. The tone of Axel's voice had sent childs up the young noble's spine, and the green eyes that stared at him reminded him of a dog that had a piece of meat dangling in front of it. The second he comes within range, the red head was bound to bite his head off.

It didn't make any sense. Guiche was a noble, this man was a commoner. He could be trembling in fear and awe of his betters, not staring him down with a smug scowl. Was there something that this man knew that Guiche did not?

No. Of course not. He was just a foolish peasant that needed to be taught his place. Guiche had nothing to fear from this man. And besides, he couldn't back out now, even if he wanted to. The moment he had said the words his honor had been put on the line. Several dozen's of people were already whispering around them and they were bound to tell there friends to hurry over to see the smug commoner get beaten on.

"I see that you are least not a coward, even if you are a barbarian." Guiche scoffed as he stood up straight. "We will fight in the squire in ten minutes. So make peace with yourself, you common filth." Guiche through out his cape in a dramatic manner and left, Axel not saying a word as he watched the noble go.

People were starting to move, they all wanted to either get to a teacher to get it called off, or get to the squire so that they could have the best spots.

"Axel." Tabitha said as she walked up next to the nobody. She looked up at him. She wasn't scared for him, but she was a little surprised. She had been preparing to stop Guiche herself when Axel had stepped in to stop the attack. She hadn't expected him to do it.

"You shouldn't have done that." Siesta said. "He was just going to punish me a little, but now that you've stood up to him, he'll kill you. And since it's a duel he's allowed to do it."

Axel didn't care. He was silent for a few more seconds, but when he did finally speak, Siesta was shocked. "Why?" He said, his voice full of something akin to anger. He turned and glared down at Siesta. "Why did I bother saving you?"

"Wha..." Siesta mumbled, not understanding. He had changed. He wasn't the charming man he was earlier. This was completely different.

"You are nothing to me. Just a convent tool to be used and discarded. If that brat had killed you, I would have lost nothing." Axel said cruelly turning his eyes away. "So why... why did I feel like I had to save you! What compelled me to do it!?"

Tabitha watched the change in the Nobody of fire. Most people would have seen these actions as a sign of rage, or disgust, or contempt. But Axel didn't seem to be any of those things to Tabitha. Instead, he seemed scared. Not scared about having to fight a noble, but scared because he didn't understand his own actions.

"Axel?" Siesta said a hand going to her chest. "I... I thought..."

"Well you thought wrong, because I mislead you." Axel said turning back to her again. "You never meant anything to me. I never even bothered to remember your name." His eyes went to the cut on her face that was bleeding down into her eyes. She had several cuts and scratches on her that were fairly bad and would need looking at.

Axel felt the pain again in his chest. His face softened even though he didn't mean it to. He knelt down next to the girl who flinched away from him, this man who was so different. Lifted one of his gloved hands over his head and took a small breath, channeling his magic, activating the matrix within him that converted the light magic spells. "Cure." He mumbled.

Siesta's jaw dropped and Tabitha's eyes widened as ribbons of green light came from the palm of Axel's hand before going flouting around the girl's injures.

Everywhere the light touched began to heal and an astonishing rate until no one could be able to tell the girl had ever been hurt at all. Siesta watched as a cut on her arm disappeared completely. "How?" She said in awe, her eyes moving up to stare into Axel's.

"Light magic isn't exactly my specialty, but even I can heal injures that are that small." Axel said, then his face grew hard again. "Don't think this mean's anything. I was just feeling like a little warm up, that's all... Now scram before I get annoyed." He said as he got to his feet and started to turn away.

A hand grabbed his sleeve and he stopped. He turned he head to see Tabitha looking up at him with her curious blue eyes. Axel's face immediately softened at the sight of those eyes. They were so much like Xion's, even if the owners were so different. "What is it?"

"Squire, that way." Tabitha said, pointing in the other direction with her staff to were a large group of students were already gathering.

"Oh right. The duel." Axel said scratching his head and giving a yawn. "Guess I might as well get it over with. Then I think I'll take a nap. Might as well use the stables. They are about as comfortable as Louise's room. And it probably have better company too. Probably less shit, now that I think about it."

Tabitha watched as Axel walked towards the gathered students. She didn't exactly know what to think of this man. She wanted to keep him close. To observe him. To see if he was like the other humanoid. The one that her uncle had summoned.

The one that had twisted her uncle into a heartless monster, the one that had killed her father, the one that had shattered her mother's heart, and the one that sealed Tabitha's own heart away with that giant key.

Axel didn't seem to be the same. Though he seemed to not really have any patients for the nobility and was a little self absorbed, he wasn't running around spreading chaos for laughs.

But if he was like that boy... then she would kill him herself.

* * *

Axel looked rather bored as he walked into the middle of the students, them parting a little to let him through. Guiche was standing on the opposite side of the circle of students. "I commend your bravery for coming, even if it was foolish."

"I'm willing to admit I've never had to put on a show for some many. I usually prefer to do my business behind closed door." Axel said with a shrug. "Though I'm hardly getting stage fright."

Kirche was one of the people standing in the circle around the two fighters. She hardly even noticed when her all but completely silent friend joined her. "Oh, Tabitha, where have you been?"

"Courtyard." Tabitha answered in one of her one word responses, not looking up from her current book, though she wasn't really reading it. She was still wondering about Axel. The kind of person he was.

"Well, I'm almost sorry that you stumbled onto this." Kirche said looking over at the red haired Nobody. "And he was so cute too."

"Axel will win." Tabitha said, she was curtain of it. Axel had the feel of a member of the Knights of the North Parterre, Gallia's group of elite assassins. Kirche looked surprised at the smaller girl's declaration. She knew better than to think it was just hot air. If she said that Axel would win, then she had to know something.

"Well then, shall we being?" Guiche asked raising his rose wand.

"I'm ready when you are." Axel said with a smile but then he slapped himself in the forehead. "Oh, I just remembered I wanted to ask something real quick."

"What is..." Guiche started, but he was cut off.

"Guiche!" Louise roared as she stomped out onto the field. Guiche and Axel both groaned at the slight of the pink haired girl. "Guiche, stop this at once. You know very well that duels are strictly forbidden."

"Yes, but that only applies to duels between two nobles. He is a peasant, so there is no problem." Guiche reasoned with a smug grin. No one really cared why Louise thought anyways.

"That's just because no one ever thought that something like that you happen. Do you really think that this excuse will hold up with the Head Master." Louise said, still trying to reason with the boy.

"Oh, have you perhaps developed feeling for this common familiar?" Guiche asked the girl.

Louise blushed an angry red. "That's not it at all!" She shouted. "It's just that no mage would just stand by while there familiar is beaten into a blood heap."

"While you shut up, you little brat." Axel said, drawing gasps from the audience at his clear disrespect for a noble, and his master at that. Even Guiche looked offended. "All you're doing is making this all take longer than it needs to. And I still haven't had my question answered yet." Axel started to roll his shoulders a bit, loosening up the flow of magic for the upcoming fight.

"And what is your question, you insufferable brut?" Guiche asked angrily.

"Well, I little servant said that if one of us dies in one of these duels, then there are no consequence." Axel said, grinning like a mad man as he stared at his victim to be. "Is that true?"

"It is true." Guiche replied matching his grin. "Though I am afraid the duel has already begun!"

Guiche murmured a few words and flicked his rose wand, causing a single petal to fly up before flashing down onto the ground. When the light cleared there was a single suit of armor shaped as if it was meant for a woman with a few feathers behind the ears. In the armor's hand was a spear, not a elegant weapon if you asked the Dancing Flame.

"I am Guiche the Brass. So a Brass Golem, a Valkyrie, will be your opponent." Guiche said as he crossed his arms. He clearly believed that the single golem would be enough to handle Axel.

"Scan." Axel mumbled, letting some magic flow to his eyes and activate his vision based ability. He could only grin when the info came back and he was not impress. The strength allowed to the armor by the boy's magic was not nearly enough to overpower a member of Organization XIII.

The Valkyrie charged forward, its spear out in front of it, as if to try to drive Axel through in just one move. Some of the more squeamish girl's in the audience squealed, believing that the red haired man was going to die.

But to everyone's shock, Axel stopped the spear with one hand, grabbing it just below the head. "You've got to be kidding me. Is that all?" Axel said smugly as pulled the armor in and grabbed onto its face plate. He proud magic into his own specialty, fire. "Fira." He said simply, not wasting a higher level version of the spell on such a weak opponent. The black gloved hand of the Nobody glowed red hot and a fire ball blasted the head and shoulders off of Guiche's Golem.

"Was... was that magic?" "He just shot fire right out of his hand!" "An elf! He has to be an elf! We can't really see his ears in all that hair!" "Did Zero summon a noble!?"

The voices of the crowd grew and grew as they all tired to figure out what had just happened. Louise herself was wide eyed, her jaw hanging open as she watched. Her familiar could do magic. How was that even possible.

"I haven't had much time to read up on the magic you've got in this country, but I believe that was what you would call a 'line level' spell." Axel said as what remained of the Valkyrie fell to pieces. "Not that I couldn't have used a stronger spell, but it would have just been a waste."

"You... you're a noble?" Guiche said, panic in his voice. He had been fine with picking on a defenseless commoner, but he wasn't ready to fight someone on equal footing. And if what the red haired man said was true, then he was a higher rank mage than Guiche was.

Axel started to laugh. It was the same hollow laugh that seemed void of any true heart, causing a shiver to go through the crowd. "There is nothing 'noble' about me." Axel said with a shake of his head. "I am a Nobody. An empty shell that has no heart. So when I kill you, I will feel nothing at all."

'When I kill you'. Guiche was about to die. He could feel the truth of it. "Stay... stay back!" He shouted quickly summoning up more of the Valkyries to protect him, knowing all the while that it was no use. The six suits of armor stood in front of him, brandishing their weapons, waiting for the command to attack.

"Is that your only trick?" Axel asked, shaking his head, as if disappointed. "Oh well." He raised his arms out to either side of him. "Eternal... Flames." threads made of black and crimson flames pushed out of Axel's hands, twisting around each other in order to form Axel's weapons. They were a cross between chakrams and wind and fire wheels, his 'Eternal Flames'. Circular weapons with eight sharp blades sticking out of them. Axel held them loosely as his side, spinning one of them around on his finger.

Despite having some of the most powerful fire based magic there was, Axel himself had never really depended on it. He preferred to use his weapons, so that he could feel some form of resistance as he tore through his opponents flesh.

"A...Attack!" Guiche commanded his Golems.

The mindless suits of armor rushed forward, but none of them were fast enough to touch Axel. The red haired Nobody moved through the group of empty armors, slashing through them with his Eternal Flames, the heat from his weapon's melting straight through them, cutting them like warm butter as he passed by. To the on looks it looked as if he was dancing a strange and destructive dance.

The Valkyries were cut down, one by one as Axel closed the distance between him and Guiche.

"Stay... stay back." Guiche stammered, holding up his rose wand. The noble boy started to chant, but Axel throw one of his Eternal Flames. It cut across Guiche's arm, causing the boy to scream in pain and drop his wand. Guiche staggered back as Axel came closer, crushing the boy's wand underneath his heel. "I... I yield." Guiche said, but Axel kept moving towards him, his eyes still cold, despite the fire that twisted around his hands. "I said I yield!"

A twisted smile spread across Axel's face. "Sorry, I'm afraid I can't hear you." Axel said, causing the boy to go pale as screams of horror went through the observers. "I don't think you understand what it means to be in a fight, young Lordling. So let me explain it to you." Axel held one of his weapon's up so that he was looking at the boy through the cracks between the blades. "A fight doesn't end when one party gives up. A fight ends when they are dead." Guiche turned and tried to run away, but a wall of fire burst from the ground, cutting him off. He stumbled and fell to the ground, his was to stunned with fear to keep moving. "Got it memorized?"

"Familiar! I order you to stop!" Louise shouted. "He has yielded, you cannot continue!"

Axel did stop, but not to follow the order, but to glare at Louise who shrank back. "Shut up, you stupid brat. You can't order me around." He said with a sneer. "I am a Nobody. My kind are loyal to none but ourselves. So if I want to kill this boy, there is nothing you can do to stop me."

Guiche had managed to get back to his feet again and was trying to run, but Axel throw a chakram again, catching the boy in the back of the leg. Guiche gave a wail of pain as he fell to the ground, clutching at the weapon that was stuck in his leg. Axel walked slowly over to him, rolled the boy over with one foot and glared straight down into the boy's face. "This is it. I hope your ready." He said, the twisted smile returning to his lips.

"Please... please you can't do this. I'm a noble!" Guiche cried. The boy has hysterical by this point, to afraid of death to try to keep up his image.

"Like I care." Axel spat as he raised his weapon above his head. Dozen's of voices were calling out in panic, but Axel didn't care. This boy meant nothing to him. He would just be another one of the nameless hundreds who Axel had killed.

But before the Nobody could strike the finishing blow, he felt a tug on the sleeve of his empty hand. He turned his head to see Tabitha standing there, looking up at him with her crystal blue eyes. "Please Axel." She said in her monotone voice.

Axel froze. Remembering when Xion had said the same thing to him. The look in her eyes seemed to stare straight though him. "You want me to let him live?" Axel said, just for clarification. Tabitha nodded.

The spectators were all shocked when Axel slowly lowered his weapon and in a flash of fire, both the one in his hand, and the one still embedded in the boy's leg disappeared. Axel bent down to the boy who looked up into his green eyes, to scared to look away. "You should be grateful to this little lass. She just saved your skin." He said before standing up straight, turning around, and starting to walk away.

"Why..." Louise said as Axel passed her. "Why do you follow Tabitha's orders, but not mine? I am your master!"

Axel stopped. "I already told you. I have no loyalties to anyone." Axel said, though he turned back and looked at Tabitha who was standing close behind him. "But I still do favors for my friends." He said before waving a hand, causing a corridor of darkness to appear before him. Student's gasped at seeing the dark pool springing up out of the ground. "Tabitha. I consider you a friend. So if you ever need a hand, you know where to fine me."

Tabitha nodded silently as Axel stepped through the dark pool and disappeared from sight. Hushed words flew through the gathered students.

Louise the Zero had summoned some kind of monster, and only Tabitha could control him.

* * *

Axel was back on the roof of the school again, this time the sun was just starting to set and he was eating a ice pop he had made from some sugar, sea salt, and a glass of water he had stolen from the kitchens, with a spoon for the stick. Ice magic was one of his worse fields of magic, but he could still chill the water to freezing.

Axel looked up from his book, taking in the sunset and letting the nostalgic feeling pass over him. He could have almost sworn he hard Roxas and Xion's mocking quips as they tried to get him to talk about his day's mission or teach them something new about the worlds.

But the sunset was not as beautiful as the sunset from Twilight Tower. With out the pollution in the air to further reflect the light it wasn't as vastly orange. And without his two friends there with him, it just wasn't the same.

Axel sighed and looked down at the book in his hands. It was a history log of all the familiars that had been summoned in the last two years at the academy, with description of their runes. Most of the sets of runes were repeated and easily deciphered, just being words like 'Flame' or 'Gust'. But Axel could not find anything that was matching the runes on his chest. Something that he believed to be significant, even if he didn't know how.

He was drawn out of his reading by the sound of dragon's wings and looked over his shoulder to see Tabitha and Sylphid landing on the rough behind him. The small blue haired girl walked over next to him and sat down on the bench. "Fancy seeing you here again." Axel said, just starting up a conversation, one that he expected to be one sided.

"Yes." Tabitha said with a nodded as she pulled out her own book and started to read.

Axel grabbed one of the ice pops he made and held it out to the girl. "Want one?" He offered.

Tabitha looked at it before putting her book down and taking the ice pop. She looked at it for a few seconds and then watched Axel taking a small bite out of his. Tabitha slowly brought it to her mouth and licked it.

Her eyebrows furrowed as the odd taste entered her mouth. "Salty... sweet?" She said confused, as if she didn't know if she liked it or not.

"It's an acquired taste." Axel chuckled as he took another bite. The Sea Salt Icecream had always been a sort of joke between him and his two good friends. As Nobodies they really didn't get any pleasure for eating it. It was just a ritual that was so human, and was something they were imitating. Or at least... that's how it started. Axel was never quite sure if Roxas and Xion hadn't had hearts of there own, or maybe just one heart that they shared between the two of them.

Tabitha nodded and licked at the pop again, slowly seeming to get accustomed to it.

Axel smiled at the sight of the small girl quietly eating her ice pop. "You know, a while back, I used to climb to the top of a tower, a lot like this one." Axel said, getting the little girls attention. "I would go there every night after I got off from work and sit around with my two best friends eating ice cream and laughing at the world."

He took another large bite out of his ice pop before continuing. "The other guys in the Organization all wanted to complete Kingdom Hearts so that they could get hearts of there own, but we never really cared about that. The three of us just wanted to keep on going, living each day as it came and clowning around with each other on the roof of that old clock tower." Axel looked out into the distance. "I really just wanted to go back to those days."

"What happened?" Tabitha asked the Nobody.

Axel glance down at her and gave a sad smile. "Well... they got left. They got lost in a place where I couldn't follow them." Tabitha looked down herself. "Don't worry, I haven't give up on seeing them again." Axel said, sounding pretty determined. He was used to giving long speeches and getting only one or two lines of response. It brought him back to the days when Roxas was just starting off.

"The summoning?" Tabitha guessed.

Axel nodded. "I promised them that no mater what happens, that I would always be there to bring them back. So I will do it. Even if I have to make an enemy of the rest of exitance. Even if it takes me all of time. Even if I have to die a thousand death. I will find a way to bring them back."

"Loyal." Tabitha said, it almost sounding like an accusation.

Axel blinked and laughed, it seemed like a much more real laugh than his usual cold chuckles. "I like to think that it is for entirely selfish purposes." Axel said with a grin. "I want the two of them back, even if they didn't want to come, I would drag them kicking screaming if I have to. Because... they made me feel alive. Like I really mattered. Almost as if... I really had a heart." Axel said, his voice was full of longing.

"Love?" Tabitha suggested with a tilt of her head.

Axel frowned. Love had been one of those things that nobodies had a hard time wrapping their minds around. They recognized the symptoms of it, and could take advantage of it, but then never could grasp the finer details.

"I... suppose." Axel admitted with a nod. "But it would be like the love for a family member. They were like my goofy little brother and sister. It was my job to look after them, keep them happy, and shelter them." He said glancing at Tabitha. "You remind me a lot of one of them. You're just like how Xion was when she first started out."

"Like your little sister." Tabitha said looking down again and taking a bite out of the ice pop. It looked as if she had a small blush coming on, though her voice didn't change.

"Tell me. Why did you want me to spare that boy?" Axel asked the girl curiously.

"If he died... people would be sad." It sounded like the logic of a small child. Though Axel had to admit it was true for the most part.

"I suppose so. I really didn't care too much either way." Axel admitted. "If I spared him, his fear of me would drive him to do something stupid that will just cause me more trouble. But if I killed him, then someone would more than likely try to take revenge and that would cause me more trouble. So for me, it didn't really matter if he lived or died. That's why I prefer to take care of my business behind closed doors. That way you don't have to worry about the fallout."

"No enjoyment?" Tabitha asked him. He understood what she was asking. Did he find enjoyment in hurting others.

"Not really. Killing has always just been a means to an ends. I find no personal satisfaction in the killing itself. But sometimes you can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. So if needed, I will kill or rescue people, depending on my own needs." Axel said with a shrug. Tabitha nodded, she could understand the need for self preservation before all things, and being ready to kill anyone at a moment's notice in order to keep yourself and your loved ones safe. "You might have even done me a favor my making it look like someone is controlling me."

Axel was quiet for a few seconds. "I still need to be here in order to keep searching for the secrets behind my summoning, but I can't do that through Louise." Axel said glancing down at the girl. Tabitha looked up at him, her glasses reflected the like of the moons now that the sun had finished setting. "Tabitha, I want to extend the same offer I gave Louise to you. For food, shelter and the knowledge I seek, I am willing to act as your servant."

Tabitha looked as if she was mulling it over in her mind. Then she nodded.

Axel grinned. "Then I am counting on you to keep up your end of the contract, Master."

* * *

 **Complete chapter 2**


	4. Xion 1

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

"I, Vittorio Serevare, in the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar."

All the the priests and priestess's who had gathered to watch their Holiness, Pope Vittorio Serevare, summon his familiar had to shield their eyes from the blinding light that filled the chambers as the man's words echoed through the air.

Once the light faded they were all shocked to see that standing in the middle of cathedral, in front of his Holiness was a small girl. She looked as if she was only thirteen years old, with raven black hair that was parted away from her baby like face. She was dressed in a robe as black as her hair with silver chains and buttons. Her sky blue eyes blinked with surprised confusion as she looked about her.

If the holy men and women were surprised to see the girl, they were not as surprised as the girl was to actually be there.

Xion looked as her black gloved hands, opening and closing them. "How am I alive?" She mumbled in shock. She could remember dying. She had to die. Her existence had been a threat to Roxas, and she couldn't stand it, the reality that she was slowly draining away her best friend.

Xion was not a human. Strictly speaking, she wasn't a Nobody either. She was a living doll, given life and power by being infused with the memories that Roxas had stored from when he was a part of Sora. And it was from this connection that Xion had been slowly sapping the strength from Roxas, her best friend.

But now that Xion was standing there, in the middle of the large cathedral after having seemingly been brought back from the dead, she found to her shock that she could not feel him. She couldn't feel Roxas anywhere. There was no power going back and forth between them in the connection that linked them.

Xion had never known a time when she couldn't feel that connection. It had been there since her very first memory, though she hadn't always known what it was. But it not being there told her something. Roxas was gone. Back to being part of Sora.

The thought was bitter sweet. Roxas would be whole again, and he wouldn't have to suffer. But now he was gone, and she wouldn't be able to see him again. Her best friend in the worlds. The person who gave her an identity. Or at least shared one with her.

"My name is Vittorio Serevare. Pentagram of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make her my familiar." Xion was shocked out of these thoughts by the words of the man standing before her. He was tall, with long blond hair that came hallway down his back and golden eyes. He was wearing white robes and a strange white hair that looked silly in Xion's personal opinion.

"Wh..." Xion started but before she could say anything, the man pressed his lips to hers. Xion's eyes widened as her brain took a second to try to process what had just happened.

"It is done." The man said as he leaned back and smiled at the girl.

Smack. Xion slapped the man in the face hard enough to send him flying back several feet. "You... you... you... jerk!" Xion screamed as she grabbed everything that was within arms reach and started throwing it at the dazed man. "I wanted my first kiss to be special!"

"Protect his Holiness!" Someone shouted and guards ran in front of the rampaging girl, only managing to get hit themselves by the storm of books and candle sticks that the girl was throw.

"Pervert! Rapist! Pedophile!" Xion shouted the words she had learned from Axel. The red haired Nobody had told her to shout them if anyone grabbed her in a public area, he said it would force them to let go of her and give her a chance to escape. Though she really didn't know what any of those words meant. Running out of the easier to throw objects she grabbed a twelve foot tall bronze statue of the Founder and manage to pull the entire thing off the ground. The guard's jaw's dropped as the tiny little girl lifted the massive statue. "HENTAI!"

The guards all started to run away, grabbing the Pope and hurry to get out of the way of the bronze statue as it as it sailed through the air at them. It smashed into the benches behind were the Pope had been, cracking the stone floors and reducing the seats to splinters.

Having ran out of things to throw Xion turned and ran from the room, crying at the lose of her first kiss. She smashed the church doors open as she ran through them, to distressed to even notice as the familiar runes were burned into her left hand.

* * *

Xion had ran to a dark alley before jumping up onto the roof of the building. She huddled up in a corner and whipped the confused tears from her eyes. Now was not the right time to be breaking down.

"When you find yourself in unfamiliar territory, the first think you need to do is calm down and come up with a plan of action. Thinking deeply won't get you anywhere." Xion said to herself, remembering one of the lessons that Axel had drilled into her and Roxas. "Got it memorized." She said with a small chuckle, remembering her mentor of sorts. She missed Axel and Roxas already. They had been the only two that had been nice to her.

"Alright, I have no idea were I am, so what can I do?" Xion mumbled to herself. "Going back to Organization XIII is out of the question. Especially if Roxas isn't there." She reasoned as she tried to think of a different plan of action. "I need to find a place to stay, and a reliable food source. After that, I can start looking for answers. Until then I should hold off on thinking about it."

She stood up and her eyes scanned over the city. She knew that she could probably find some food there. She knew enough about stealing and pick pocketing to get her by, but she was pretty sure that whoever had been in the cathedral could be after her, so shelter should probably be further away from other people. But then she remembered one of the worlds she had visited. At the top of the cathedral there, there had been a man hiding out from the rest of the world in the bell tower.

She looked straight up at the structure. She could probably get in and out without people noticing once the sun went down, and it would be easy to defend since it any guards would have to carry there equipment all the way up the stairs and ladders, making it difficult for them to be well armored. And with her keyblade, she could make any door into the strongest of barriers. She could also rain magic down on them as they tried to reach her. So that would take care of shelter.

"Alright then, I need to get me some grub." Xion said quickly running along the roof tops, looking down at the streets below, trying to find where the market district was.

It didn't take her that long to find, the crowded streets of the out door market were noisy and so bustling with people that it would have been almost impossible to simply over look. Xion dropped from the roof into a nearby alley, observing from the shadow how the crowd moved and acted so that she would be able to simply blend into them. Then after a few moments, when she saw two rather large groups coming together, she pulled up her hood and faded into the crowd between them.

For a while Xion just tried not to get overwhelmed by the crowd. She had never been much for intelligence gathering field work. So trying to keep track of all of the voices around her was causing her head to spin a little. Her eyes were jumping from stand to stand, trying to find one that had plenty of food and a none attentive owner. But unfortunately, most of the shops seemed to be targeting tourists rather than locals. So nearly all the stands had what Xion assumed to be over priced nicknacks and souvenirs, both of which were useless to the living doll.

But eventual she found where the farms had set up, and while one was haggling with a man over the price of his wears, Xion managed to snatch three apples without being noticed. Walking away, she started to enjoy her prize. The apples were under ripe, but they still filled her well enough and she had never been a picky eater.

Next thing she had to do was figure out were exactly she was and how she had gotten there. Both were going to be a problem. Openly asking people where she was would draw attention to her and that wasn't something she wanted at the moment, and in order to find out how she had gotten there she would have to go back to the cathedral and interrogate someone there.

The memory of some of the interrogations that were done in Organization XIII turned the girl's stomach a little. She had always found it to be horrifying work, but if she ever voiced that opinion the Nobodies would laugh at her, saying that she should stop joking around because she didn't have a heart to feel horrified with.

She continued to consider her options. Axel had always said that the two best places to get information from were kitchens and taverns. Though if Xion went to a kitchen, she would stick out like a sore thumb, and if she went to a tavern, one of the people that worked there would spot her and since she wouldn't be buying anything, that would also grab their attention.

"Being sneaky is harder than I thought." Xion mumbled as she escaped the crowd and tried to find somewhere quiet to think. The third place Axel suggested for getting information from was prisons, but that was also more or less out of the question, since a prison break would gather the most attention of all.

"Maybe I should go back and talk to that man..." Xion said absent mindedly. She stopped in her tracks and frowned. No way. There was no way she would go back to that creep. She didn't know much about kissing, but from the memories she had from Sora, she knew that your first kiss was supposed to be something special, not something that a total stranger takes away from you while you aren't paying attention. Especially in front of other people and when he looks like he's twice her age. Aren't there laws against that kind of thing? She could vaguely remember Axel saying that most worlds have laws like that. Or was that just about sex?

Xion flushed and shook her head, trying to forget the lesson about where babies come from that Axel had given both her and Roxas when Xion had freaked out one morning because she had woken up to blood coming out from between her legs. That was a conversation that she really wished she could forget. Axel had taken great pleasure in explaining the details even as the two younger members begged him to stop.

Xion looked up into the sky. The sun would be setting soon and then she would find her way to the top of the bell tower. It would be easy for someone like her to climb the outside wall. There were plenty of ledges and windows to grab onto.

But as Xion was thinking of how to best get to the tower without being spotted she noticed a large amount of smoke going up into the sky. Xion paused watching the dark clouds coming up from the earth. "Where there is smoke, there is fire. Where there is fire, there is something that started it. Got it memorized?" Xion recited Axel's words to herself. There was always a chance that this fire was started by Heartless, Xion knew that. Deep inside of her, she felt a pull to go. To hunt down the Heartless and harvest their corrupted hearts. It is what she was made to do.

So she jumped up onto a nearby roof, not really caring if anyone saw her in her haste to get to the fire. She ran alone until she saw it, a large three story building that was completely covered in flames. There were people standing around it, some trying to throw water onto the fire, but the flames were already to strong for such methods to do much good.

Xion looked over the area and sighed. She couldn't feel the draw of the keyblade, so there probably wasn't any Heartless around. She was going to just leave, but she heard someone crying out for help. Looking up she saw three children in one of the third story windows. The oldest was probably her age while the youngest looked to be around four years old, and they were trapped inside of the burning building.

A woman down below was screaming for someone to save her children as two grown men tried to hold her back from rushing back into the burning building.

Xion frowned and looked up at the window. Rushing in there to save the children would go against the Organizations taught her. They had always said that she should try her best to go unnoticed because the worlds would never accept her or any of them.

But seeing those people in danger, she didn't know if she could just standby. The ceiling above the children started to give way and they were forced back away from the window though their shrill cries could still be heard just above the roar of the fire. Xion bit her lip and stood up. She didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but she was going to try to rescue the kids.

A flash of light appeared in her right hand and once it disappeared she was holding her keyblade, the over sized silver key with a golden handle guard. Jumping back a few feet she took a running start and leapt from the building she was standing on, tucking in her head as she crashed through the window.

She rolled out in front of the other kids, getting her first good look at them from underneath her hood. The three all had dark brown hair, the oldest was a girl who looked like she was fourteen or so with hair that reach down passed her shoulders, next to her was the four year old, a boy with very short hair who was crying loudly. Finally, between them was another girl, just eight years old with pigtails, her leg was burned and broken and she was crying loudest of all despite the smoke it was pulling into her lungs.

Xion didn't bother to talk to them. Talking to normal people was not a skill she had ever developed. So instead she turned back to the window and held out her keyblade. "Freeze!" She shouted, pulling up a large amount of magic and sending it though the ice formula matrixes that existed within her body, creating a blast of ice that blew out the window and drove away the flames near it.

The children seemed startled, but not as started as when the girl grabbed the three of them and pulled them all out of the opening with her. They screamed in terror as the ground came up to meet them but before they hit the ground, Xion used yet another spell. "Drift!" She shouted, using her magic to break down the connection between them and the earth that created gravity. It was a fairly low level nothingness spell, usual called 'zero gravity'.

The three children all hit fell lightly to the ground, landing on their stomachs even as Xion landed on her feet, though her hood had fallen back, exposing her face. The mother gave a cry of relief as she rushed forward to embrace her three children. They all sported serious burns and the middle child's leg looked bad. The children wasn't the only ones. Looking around Xion could see many of the people that hadn't gotten out of the building without at least a few burns.

"Oh my babies. You're so hurt. My babies." The mother was crying as she clung to her frightened children.

Xion bit her lip again. If Axel was there, he would have told her to just leave them. That she had already jeopardized herself by saving the humans in the first place and that if she wasted energy healing them, then she might just end up in even deeper trouble. He could have told her not to be to dependent on the gratitude of humans, especial in an unknown world.

Even knowing all this, Xion couldn't just turn her back on them. It was one of the reasons she had never fit in very well with the others at Organization XIII. It was always so hard for her to just turn a blind eye.

Xion closed her eyes, calling on as much of her magic as she could. The world seemed to go quiet as her keyblade began to glow with a shining white light that spread onto her body. She spun the giant key, tossing it into her left hand before pointing it down and driving it into the earth. There were gasps of surprise as white and green ribbons of light came out of the ground, so bright as to almost be blinding. "Salvation." Xion whispered, unleashing the most powerful spell she posed. Salvation, a spell that banished the darkness and healed almost any injury. It was an odd thing for people like Xion and Roxas to possess. People who were born in darkness and were fated to one day return to darkness. But both them had a strange affinity for light magic, more powerful than all save for the Princesses of Heart, King Mickey, and Sora himself.

The light grew even stronger and it pulsated outwards. The ribbons of light reached out, touching everyone within range of the spell, causing their burns to vanish and the fear the disappear from their hearts.

Once the spell was finished, Xion could feel the toll that it had taken on her. Despite its power it was not a spell for casual use, taking up as much energy as sixteen normal cure spells. All the energy the girl had regained from those apples she had stolen had been used up, and then some more energy on top of that. But the spell had done its job.

"Mommy." The small child said as she moved her leg again. "It doesn't hurt anymore mommy."

Other people were saying similar things already round Xion. The living doll hear them throwing around the words 'miracle' and 'angel'.

Xion did her best not to show how tired the spell had left her. She could practically hear Axel giving his small rant on how you enemies can only tell that your tired if you let it show, and that they will strike the moment they know it.

Unfortunately, Xion's enemies were nearby anyways. "There she is!" Xion turned her head to see some of the guards from the cathedral running towards them with spears and wands at the ready. Xion slightly used some of Axel's more choice phrases and she turned and started to run, ignoring the shouts for her to stop.

She wanted to call on a corridor of darkness to get away, but using one when you weren't at full strength was just asking for trouble. If she used it now, as tired as she was, she could be consumed by the darkness and lose everything she had; body, mind, and heart.

So instead she gathered up what little magic she had left, pressing it around her body and forming a slip space in front of her. "Photon charge." She mumbled as once again light covered her body and she shot up into the air like a shooting star, flying several blocks before landing on the roof of a building and continuing on foot.

Glancing back over her shoulder she saw that she had lost her pursuers and had time to rest. "Just great." Xion grumbled to herself and she sat down on the edge of the roof and kicked out her feet. Her stomach growled, demanding she replace what she used. "Guess Axel was right. You can't expect human's to be nice to you just because you save them."

She shook her head. "Come on Xion, you can't be getting depressed now!" She said loudly giving herself a pep talk. "A string of bad luck isn't going to get you down. You still need to figure out what the heck is going on! Yeah!" She said pumping a hand into the air. Her stomach growled again. "After I grab some more to eat." She mumbled a little embarrassed even though no one was around.

After a quick search she managed to find an outdoor shop that was selling week old bread. She didn't even have to steal it. The woman working the stand was just about to throw the stuff away since nobody wanted it and just gave Xion a whole bag full. It wasn't tasty and some of it had mold, but Xion was still glad for the easy meal.

Later that night, Xion climbed to the top of the bell tower and found that her change of luck had continued as the bell tower was deserted, but that it had once actually been home to a tenant who manned the bells, so even though the sheets were far from clean and there was dust everywhere, she had a bed and blankets for the night.


	5. Axel 3

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Louise didn't know what to do. Her familiar had never came back to her room the previous night, something that she was both relieved about and horrified of.

She had been ashamed of him, believing he was a worthless commoner. She had been cruel and dismissive, blaming him for all of her life's problems. He had made it easy to do by acting as if she was beneath him even though she was supposed to be his master.

But then he had shown his true colors. He was a mage, and a powerful one at that, casting magic without an incantation or even a wand. He had been confident and cold, like a trained killer, or a demon from the stories. He was going to kill Guiche, and he was so casual about to make things worse, when Louise tried to order him to stop he had just shrug her off, acting as though she was nothing.

That entire night she had stayed awake, horrified that he would coming in and kill her. She realized how easily he could have done it. That whole time she had been ordering him around he could have easily burned her to a crisp.

Tabitha had been able to stop him. He had listened to her, not because she was his summoner, or because he respected her power or her status as a noble, but because she had been kind to him. He had listened to her request out of friendship.

Louise had found it hard to get up in the morning, afraid that as she went about her day Axel would spot her and decide to take revenge for all of the humiliation she had put him through. She was counting her blessings when she had managed to get all the way down the dining hall without being spotted by him.

She sat in front of her plate, not able to bring herself to eat. To think that some people believe that giving people whatever they want for their last meal was a kindness. How could you possibly eat knowing that you are about to climb the stairs to a waiting executioner.

"I see you are really for another day of practice, huh Zero?" Kirche said in her normal snubby manner as she sat down across from Louise. The pink haired girl jumped a little at hearing Kirche's voice directed at her, but after seeing the taller girl she almost sighed with relief.

"Oh Kirche, it's you." Louise said weakly.

Kirche's next words caught in her throat after hearing her favorite verbal sparing partner calling her by her first name. On closer inspection, the Germanian girl realized that Louise didn't look so good. Her hair was tangled and uncombed, her skin was rather pale and she had small bags under hear eyes. "Louise, are you feeling alright?" Kirche asked.

"Kirche... what am I supposed to do?" Louise said miserable. "I thought that he was just a normal commoner, that the runes would break his will. I hated him so much for embarrassing me. I didn't know he was a... that he was a... a noble."

Kirche watched the little girl in front of her shiver from a mixture of exhaustion and stress. "You could have been nicer to him." Kirche pointed out. "Even if he was supposed to be your familiar, he was still a human being. I wouldn't blame him for being mad that you treated him like an animal." Louise flinched at her rivals words. Kirche glanced around the hall, not seeing the red haired man. "Where is he anyways? I haven't see him all day."

"I don't know. I think he ran away." Louise said looking down to her plate.

"He... ran away?" Kirche said a little shocked. Louise shrank in her chair. For a noble, losing your familiar was a disgrace, and for it to actually run away... it was unthinkable. Kirche just stared at the girl until she noticed the seat next to her being pulled out and Tabitha climbing into the chair. The small blue haired girl held her customary book in her left hand as she used her right to blindly reach for a fork.

"Oh Tabitha." Kirche said happily, giving the small girl a big smile. "You wouldn't happen to now where Louise's familiar is, would you?" She asked. Tabitha nodded in response as she finally found her fork and lifted an entire piece of French toast to her mouth and started taking bites out of it. "You do? Could you tell us? Pretty please." Kirche said, knowing that Tabitha wouldn't say or do anything unless they were very specific about what it was that they needed.

"Axel's sleeping with Sylphid." Tabitha said in her usual monotone.

"What!?" Louise shouted getting some attention. "You... you mean that... that dog was running around all night with a girl doing... doing..." Louise was turning bright red as she mumbled things.

"Calm down little Louise." Kirche said. Even if she was going to stop calling Louise 'Zero' for the time being, she still found it fun to tease her, and she was so cute when flustered. "Sylphid is the name of Tabitha's familiar, you know, the dragon."

"Oh... of course." Louise said, going quiet as she tried to fight down her embarrassment.

Kirche giggled at the girl's embarrassment before turning to Tabitha. "Say, why does that man like you so much? Is he into littler girls?" Kirche asked curiously. Tabitha blushed slightly at her friend's words, but otherwise didn't react.

"Zerberst!" Louise shouted at her old rival, causing Kirche to burst into laughter.

Tabitha waited for the two to quiet down before answering. "I remind him of his little sister." Tabitha said, thinking about what Axel had said to her.

"He has a... little sister." Louise mumbled. She didn't know anything about her familiar, or his life before she had summoned him. She hadn't really cared. If he had been just some commoner, she still won't have cared. After all, commoners were dragged away from there families to be put to work all the time. Working for the nobility was an honor for them. But since he was a mage, and she had to worry about him hating her, it took on a different context to the pink haired mage. "I took him away from his family. No wonder he was being difficult."

Kirche nodded. "I imagine anyone would be angry after something like that."

Louise bit her lip. "Tabitha... could you... take me to him?" She asked. The smallest mage tilted her head, waiting for an explanation way. "I... need to apologize to him." She admitted. She tried her best to hide her trembling. She was a proud noble, and she would face this with dignity. Or as much dignity as one could have while begging for their life. Considering how he acted when Guiche tried to surrender, the fire mage might just kill her anyways.

Tabitha thought about it for a few second, then she nodded. "After food." She said before continuing to eat her breakfast. Louise looked down at her one hardly even picked at meal and sighed. If it was going to be her last meal, she might as well eat it.

* * *

Tabitha lead Kirche and Louise back to the stables. At first Louise had tried to pretend that she didn't want Kirche to be there to see her degrade herself to a mere familiar, but the red haired mage had ignored the protests. Something that Louise was secretively grateful for. She wasn't sure if she would have been able to stand it if she had been alone.

"They're here." Tabitha said as she opened up one of the doors.

Louise took a long and deep breath before walking into the stable. But once she gained a line of sight she froze, her jaw dropping.

Laying there on a mound of hay underneath a pitch black blanket was her familiar, topless with one arm wrapped around a naked girl. The girl was just a bit shorter than Kirche, with a more than modest bust of her own. Her long blue hair was a few shades darker than Tabitha's and was covering Axel's chest as she rested her head against it, a very babyish expression on the girl's face.

"Wha!?" Louise shouted in shock pointing a finger and stuttering incoherently.

"Oh wow, he sure didn't waste any time bringing a cutie to bed with him." Kirche said covering her mouth to stop herself from laughing at Louise's expression.

Axel groaned. "Do you all have to be so loud." He mumbled. "It's too early. Come back in a few hours."

"Girl must have given him a real workout last night." Kirche giggled to Louise's horror.

The girl sat up, causing the black blanket to fall off of her, exposing her body to show that she had indeed been completely naked and that her boobs were well rounded and perky. Something that Louise was very conscious of. "Big sister, is it time for morning foods?" The girl asked as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"Yes." Tabitha said, seeming to only be slightly surprised by all this.

"Ta...Tabitha... what the hecks going on here!?" Louise squealed.

The naked girl looked over at Louise, her eyes still not seeming to regester what she was looking at. Then she blinked twice and a look of panic crossed her face. "Oh, big sister! Illococoo is sorry! Illococoo didn't mean to let people see her like this!" The girl said before turning away and diving head first into the hay behind her, her shapely butt still poking out, letting the whole world see that the carpet matched the drapes.

"It's alright." Tabitha said, realizing it was to late to hide anything now.

The girl's head reappeared with a few straws of hay sticking out of her hair, she looked at the smaller blue haired girl with teary eyes and jumped to her, hugging Tabitha's head between her breasts. "Oh thank you big sister! You're the bestest!" The girl said. "Illococoo is sorry, but Axel was so warm and smooth, like nice cave! Illococoo wanted to be close and Axel said it okay as long as Illococoo didn't interfere with his sleepy! You should join us, big sister!" Tabitha blushed slightly at those words but otherwise didn't react.

"Big sister?" Kirche said since she was still able to speak. Louise's brain had been fried from display, her face turning a deeper shade of pink than her hair and her eyes becoming unforced as she tried to determine whether or not she was having a horrible nightmare.

"Familiar." Tabitha said simply as she used her staff to pry the naked girl from her body.

Kirche's eyes widened. "You mean... that's Sylphid!?"

The girl nodded happily. "That's right! Illococoo is Sylphid!" She said happily. A strange wind grew inside of the stables and the girl's body glowed. Next thing they knew, the naked girl had been replaced by Tabitha's dragon familiar.

"A rhythm dragon. Tabitha, you summoned a rhythm dragon." Kirche said in awe. Tabitha nodded quietly as the dragon licked at her cheek. "I thought they were extinct."

"Man, you're all so loud." Axel grumbled as he finally started to sit up himself. The black blanket fell away to reveal his perfectly chiseled form. This time all three girl's blushed as they looked at him. "How's a guy supposed to sleep with all this racket." He stood up and pulled up the blanket. It changed into pure darkness and covered his body, turning into the black coat he always wore. "So Tabitha, do you need something?" He asked as she rolled his shoulders, trying to get the blood flowing.

"Louise." Tabitha said simply, pointing towards the pink haired girl who seemed to turn to stone as Axel's green eyes turned to her.

"Well then, out with it. You've already woken me up, so just say what you came here for." Axel said, not even sounding the slightest bit interested in what the girl had to say.

"I'm..." Louise stammered, trying to regain her hold on herself so that she could deliver the speech that she had been preparing on the way there. "I wish to apologize you, fam... Mr. Axel." She said bowing slightly. "I did not realize that you were a noble. It was not my intention to discredit your honor and I hope that you will forgive me for the insult I had inflicted upon you." She said. She braced herself, believing that any moment the red haired familiar would strike out at her.

"You woke me up for that?" Axel said, shouldn't more than a bit annoyed. "Jeez, what a waste of time." Louise froze, he apology didn't seem to go over well. "I already said that I'm no noble. I don't have any honor or reputation to care about. I left you because you made it clear that you were not going to help me achieve my personal goals. Since you went back on your end of the bargain I have no reason to follow you."

"I'm sorry!" Louise shouted again. "I understand that you hate me but..."

She stopped as she heard Axel starting to laugh. "Hate you? You stupid girl. I don't hate you. You aren't even worth my hate." Louise froze, not believing what she had just heard. It was a horrible insult. She had heard it said from nobles about commoners, that they were so far beneath them that they were not even worth contempt. "You have never been anything more than a obnoxious fly buzzing around my head. Annoying, yes. But you have no power to harm me or stop me from completing my goods, so why should I bother hating you?"

Axel walked passed her. "If you are trying to beg me to come back then you can forget it. Tabitha is my master now. And unlike you, she keeps her end of deals." Axel said, Louise's eyes widened and glanced at the near silent mage. Her familiar had left her to be the servant of a more worthy mage. The insult to her honor was tremendous.

"But... you can't." Louise mumble. She couldn't help but to think what would happen to her if news of this got out. She would be a laughing stock. Her parents would probably pull her from the academy out of shame, trying to sweep her under the rug.

"You have nothing to bargain with, and your word is worthless to me." Axel said with a shrug. "Come on Sylphid. Well get some breakfast from the kitchens." The red haired Nobody said. The dragon picked up her little master in her mouth and put her on her back before bounding after Axel, leaving a broken Louise behind and a shocked Kirche.

* * *

There was an unnaturally tense atmosphere in the Earth tower classroom as the teacher tried to give her usual lecture. Ms. Chevreuse continued to talk, trying her best to keep a normal tone of voice, but even the middle aged teacher found herself worried.

Ms. Chevreuse was a respected triangle class mage, and she usually carried herself with pride through the academy in her dark purple robes and hat that had been given to her as a badge of honor from the palace for services rendered. But now the Earth magic instructor felt quiet uncomfortable. The students who would usually been whispering none stop to each other instead were forced and attentive. Only, not on her class.

For sitting in the front row right next to the door was the red haired man who had simply strolled into their campus and nearly killed one of their students in a manner that could only be described as psychotic. Ms. Chevreuse didn't want to turn around. The knowledge that his bright green eyes were locked onto her back was enough to make her shiver.

When the Nobody had arrived at the start of the class and declared that he would be sitting in on it until he learned anything he deemed necessary, the teacher, confident in her abilities had tried to order him to leave. He had refused and laughed at her insistence as he had sat down in a seat and pulled out a book of all things.

Ms. Chevreuse had tried to use force to remove the man, but that had only resulted in amusing him. The woman didn't even want to think of how easily he had put her in her place, right in front of all her students too. She had been preparing to cast her own Golems, creatures that were far stronger than any Guiche could conjure up. But it was useless. She didn't know how he did it, but he countered with just a single word.

But Ms. Chevreuse wasn't the only one afraid. All of her students seemed to be holding their breaths, not wanting to attract the anger of the rogue familiar. After all, who really knew what that madman was thinking about.

* * *

Axel was struggling to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, but it had all already been covered in the books he had managed to grab and her stiff presentation was rather dull. He just wanted them to get on to it and reach the practice section of the class. That's all he really was interested in.

He had realized that he needed to figure out just what the nature of Louise the Zero's magic was. After all, if it was the key that had allowed her to summon him back from beyond the worlds, than it was something he absolutely had to figure out.

Unfortunately the instructor was merely talking about the different levels of magic, something that could be summarized in one paragraph in their textbooks.

The basics of it was that you had your four types of magic; Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. And in order to create a spell you 'stack' the magics in order to be used as full. One magic was a dot spell, two was a line, three and triangle, four a square. Though for some reason they believe that this was the highest level. Pretty embarrassing really if you asked Axel. Though when you stacked magics, you didn't necessary need to use three different types to form a triangle. Their blizzard like spell was form through stacking 'Water, Wind, Wind'. Mages were classified based on how many elements they could stack, their highest level of spell.

Axel's own magic worked in a similar way, only rather than gathering the magical energy from outside of him and then focusing it through an incantation, he sent the magic energy from his own body through formulas that were inside of him, stacking the formulas instead of the packs of energy. The only real advantage that this wand method had over him was the number of spells that they could have. Axel's body didn't have unlimited room for the formulas and trying to fit more than your body was ready for was a recipe for disaster as it would rip your body apart.

Axel empty mindedly glanced around from his seat next to Tabitha. It was fairly easy to tell that the kids were afraid of him. Hell the Guiche boy was sitting in a puddle of his own piss. It was the result he was hoping for from his display at the beginning of the class.

He had found that he could use Nothingness magic to disrupt the connection between the mage's will and the magic they were trying to gather from the air. It was a reworking of his silence spell, only messing with the magic flow outside of the target's body, rather than inside of it.

It wasn't quiet as effective, though the students didn't know that. When the teacher had tried to cast her triangle level magic again him, he had used this spell, 'level down'. He couldn't completely dispel the gathered magic, but he could mess it up enough to decrease the level of magic gathered by one. And with only enough magic to cast a line level spell, the teacher's triangle spell fizzled out. Making it seem like Axel could not be touched by magic.

They were simple fear tactics. Sowing doubt into the hearts of the people around him that they could ever hope to ever challenge him should he be steered. It would greatly decrease the number of them that came after him when they finally decided to attack him. Either that our he was going to have to kill a lot of people.

He had briefly considered killing the teacher, behind closed doors when no one was looking, of course. Her constructs had been of a much higher grade then her student's, being around the same strength as a Neo Shadow. But even these wouldn't be too much trouble for Axel to handle if need be. So Axel decided against it. It would have been counter productive for the woman to die anyways. Though if this is what a triangle mage could do, he might have to be careful when approaching a team of square mages. Perhaps he should scout the other teachers to make sure that none of them were true threats to him.

He knew that Mr. Colbert was supposed to be a square class mage, but considering he specialized in fire magic, Axel didn't have anything to worry about there. Trying to kill him with fire would be like trying to drowned the ocean. Doesn't mater how much water you have, it just won't work.

"The magic of Earth is very important as it governs the creation of all matter." Ms. Chevreuse said as she continued to do her best to not turn around.

"This is so boring." Kirche whined softly. "I wish everyone would lighten up."

For some odd reason the young fire mage didn't seem to be intimidated by Axel's presence. The Nobody didn't know if it was just an act, if she had faith that Tabitha wouldn't let him kill her, or if she was just a simpleton. Perhaps it was a mixture of the three. Kirche had a bit of a reputation as a flirt, but she left Axel alone on that regard. Psychotic killers didn't seem to turn her on.

"You'd think I'd killed somebody or something." Axel mumbled. It had been funny for the first few minutes, but now it was just annoying. Made only the more annoying by the fact that Axel couldn't do anything to fix it. Most of his problems could be killed, kidnapped, blackmailed, or at least beaten up until they stopped annoying him. But none of those options would work in this case.

"Now let me demonstrate of transmuting." Ms. Chevreuse said, turning to the classroom for the first time since class had started, though she made a point not to look in Axel's direction.

She pulled out a few small stone pebbles and placed them on her table. Then pulling out her wand she clearly said the spell and pointed it at the small stones. Axel watched with slight interest as the stones began to glow, and when they glow disappeared they had been replaced by a shiny metal.

"Is that gold!" Kirche shouted in surprise, causing several students to jump as it broke through the tension in the room.

"No, just brass, my dear." Ms. Chevreuse said nervously. "Only a square class mage can create gold, I am just a triangle class." The words didn't have the pride they usual did. It didn't feel like that much of an accomplishment anymore. Not after her spell had been brushed off.

"Is there anyone who would like to try?" Ms. Chevreuse asked for volenteers, though none where in a volenteering mood.

"Why not have Ms. Vallière make the attempt." Axel said smoothly, his voice cutting through the entire room.

"Wha... me!" Louise squeaked in panic.

"You can't be serious. It isn't safe to let Louise try." Kirche objected. The other students looked like they wanted to object, but didn't have the courage. Even the teacher looked as though she wanted to try to stop it.

"To dangerous you say. Mind explaining why?" Axel asked curious. Earth magic was probably one of the most stable types of magic, with far fewer things that could go horribly wrong.

"Explosions." Tabitha said simply, not bothering to look up from her book. She was pretty sure she understood why Axel was doing all this, so she wasn't about to interfere as long as he didn't to anything too dangerous.

"Louise is the Zero." Kirche said standing out of her seat now. "She has a zero percent success rate with magic. Every time she try to cast a spell it only ends up causing a large explosion."

Axel listened to all of this with interest. He could remember the fact that there had been an explosion at his summoning as well. Louise looked a mixture of ashamed and afraid. "Interesting." Axel said tapping a finger against the book on his desk. Another book at had resulted in a dead end for his search. "I would like to see one of these explosions."

"It's too dangerous!" Kirche said angrily. "What if she gets hurt!?"

Axel looked up at the girl who was sitting just behind him on a higher level. His disinterested expression showing just how little he cared. "I only came here so that I could witness the nature of the magic that managed to summon me. She puts on a little show for me, and I will get out of your hair. Got it memorized?"

Many of the students looked conflicted over whether it was more dangerous to have Axel around or to let Louise make an attempt at magic. Though in the end the teacher went with it. "Ms. Vallière, could you... please attempt the spell?" The professor asked, she seemed a little pale at the idea, but she wanted Axel gone from the room.

"Y...yes ma'am." Louise said. The students flinched at started for cover as the small pink haired girl made her way to the first of the classroom. Axel raised an eyebrow. Just how bad was this girl at magic? The teacher herself backed as far away from the girl as she could as Louise stood at the front of the room, holding her wand in hand and looking down at the pebbles.

She looked over Axel who was staring at her, not blinking. She shivered and turned back to the stones. With a quick prayer, she repeated the teacher's words and waved her wand.

Axel's eyes widened in shock as he felt the wave of magic coming from the small girl. The stones on the desk began to shine brightly as the power was forced into them. "Aero." Axel whispered, casting his own wind barrier around himself just as Tabitha did the same.

The stones didn't transform into a new element. Instead they detonated with enough force to shake the room. Louise was thrown violently backwards away from the table as screams filled the room.

"Louise!" Kirche shouted in panic as she went to the little girl. Louise had been burned through her robes and her head had it the stone floor hard cracking open her head. "Louise talk to me." The red haired said, praying that her little rival was already.

"Kirche..." Louise said dazed, looking up at the taller girl. Kirche noticed as the girl's eyes widened.

The Germanian girl turned her head to see Axel standing over them. "I told you she should do magic!" Kirche shouted angrily at the Nobody. But Axel wasn't listening.

He looked down at the girl, feeling something that he had only ever felt once before; remorse. He regretted making her do that. He had only desired to now the nature of her magic, he hadn't wanted her to get hurt. His chest tightened as he looked down and saw the pain and fear in the girl's eyes. He closed his eyes tight and bit the inside of his lip. He shouldn't care. This girl should mean nothing to him.

But it was his fault. So he had to fix it. "Cura." Axel said gathering up the healing magic. It was the strongest healing spell he could manage with his incapability with light magic. The green and white ribbons of light coiled through the air, gathering around the shocked Louise. As they touched her sick she could feel the pain receding, and the cut on her head closing.

Louise blinked, her mouth falling open as she checked the burns on her arms to find that they had completely disappeared. She seen water magic used to heal injures before, but nothing at this speed.

"I learned everything I needed to." Axel said, trying to keep the misgivings out of his voice. "You surprised me kid. I would have never guess that that was your element. Though it does explain how you managed to summon me." He turned at started to walk towards the door to leave the room

"Wait!" Louise shouted. Axel stopped looking back over his shoulder at her. She looked desperate. "You know what my element is!?" Axel stared at her and nodded. "Please tell me. Tell me what it is!"

"You really don't know?" Axel said calmly. He was considering whether or not keeping the information to himself would be useful to him. She say her begging expression. He supposed that there was no reason to keep if from her, and she had just been injure because of his stubbornness. "Where I come from the element is called, Nothingness. It is the magic to destroy 'bonds'." Axel said simply. "By destroying the bonds between the atoms in those stones you could release all of the potential energy stored away in it. Causing an explosion. Though it can be used for other things as well."

"My magic... nothingness." Louise whispered. She had never heard of such a thing before, but then again, she had never seen magic like Axel's before either. Could she do that magic as well? She would ask him to teach her, even if it meant dying she didn't care. She needed to know. She had to do everything to gain the power she needed to keep her promise to her childhood friend and her Princess. But before she could gather her thoughts enough to ask Axel for help, he was already gone.

* * *

Axel had gone back to the top of the main tower again. He didn't have a book open this time. He was just trying to wrap his mind around what he had just witnessed.

The girl had nothingness magic, and a lot of it too. More than anyone else Axel had ever seen, with the exception of Xemnas. But the leader of Organization XIII had been a monster even among the Nobodies. How could a tiny human girl weld the same type of power he had. He might have underestimated the girl. Perhaps he should destroy her before she becomes a threat.

No. She had no idea of even the nature of her powers, she and even if she had full knowledge of them she still wouldn't be able to keep up with Axel. She lacked the combat experience. So at her current level she was not a threat at all.

Besides... he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to do it. What was the matter with him? First Kaira and Sora, then Tabitha and that maid, and now the pink haired brat? Was he starting to lose his edge? Had losing Xion and Roxas made him that weak? Or was something else holding him back?

He thought back to Louise, lying hurt on the ground and his chest throbbed. He bit his lip against the feeling. It wasn't pain. It wasn't the runes. What was that? Why did he feel like this?

Feel...

His eyes widened as the word struck him like a hammer blow to the face. Could he... could he have a heart?

* * *

Axel had found his way back to the school library and was pulling book after book from the shelves until the stacks of books completely hide him from sight.

After watching Louise's little attempt at magic, he had moved forward in his search for the secret to summoning Nobodies back from beyond the nothingness. He was getting closer, he knew it, but even so he was finding it harder and harder to concentrate.

A heart. Of all the god damn things to get in his way while he was so close to getting back the two people who make his life feel like it had value. It was so ironic. He couldn't focus on the search because of how all the information was making him 'feel'. Why the hell had he ever wanted a heart if the first place? All it seemed to make him do was act irrationally and clamp up whenever he thought about Xion's face.

'Axel... please... don't hold back.' Xion had said when he had last seen her. She had been prepared to fight him in order to get away from the Organization. But he hadn't wanted to let her go. He knew of all of the horrible plans, but he hadn't wanted to let her go. He had told her that she was being selfish, but in truth, he was the selfish one.

Axel's chest throbbed as he felt that blasted heart getting caught in his throat. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying to clear his mind, trying to make the pain go away. His hand closed on the page of the book, ripping it in half.

This was ridiculous. He was Axel, the Dancing Flame, Organization XIII's number one assassin. He was a heartless killing machine who wouldn't bat an eye even when cutting down woman and children. He had driven one of his blades into an ally's chest and detonated it, watching his blood spraying across the air with a smile on his face. But he was now being ruled by emotions rather than cold logic.

Was this a result of his summoning? Or did it have something to do with the runes on his chest? Maybe his first objective should be to get rid of this annoyance once and for all.

But... he didn't want to. As illogical as it was, he didn't want it to go away. He enjoyed sitting on the tower, reading with Tabitha and Sylphid. It was almost like having Xion and Roxas back.

Axel leaned back in his seat, trying to concentrate on what he had learned. The Void; the fifth element in this world. At first, Axel had believed that it had just been a name for magic that they had seen over the years that they didn't know how to explain, and so they named it as a holy magic and said that simply no mortal could us it. He had seen similar things in other worlds, people didn't know how fire worked so they said that it was given to them by the gods. But as it turned out, Void magic, was nothingness magic.

This discovery had moved Axel's search for the truth up by leaps and bounds. He had been reading as much as he could on Void magic, the magic of the founder, though very little record still existed. Axel was personally shocked by just how old this world and its customs were. Six thousand years was a hell of a long time. Not to mention that it was difficult to find any real information. The church did a pretty good job burning all the books that could be of much use. But eventual Axel did find a book about the Familiar's of the founder.

Sentient beings. The founder had used beings that had human levels of intelligence and made them his familiars. By what Axel could decipher, he had summoned two beings that looked like humans but posed fair greater powers than any human and two elves. Or maybe it was just one elf, he had seen it both ways, but he wasn't quite sure.

The church tried to say that their founder had been the only one to ever have this great power and that it was forever lost, but Axel believed otherwise. He doubted that Louise seriously managed to be the first Void mage in six thousand years. But if they all were as great of failures at normal magic as Louise herself, than they would not be considered real mages and their names would more than likely be lost to history as they fell out of the nobility.

Axel had scored the jack pot when he had been reading an old story about the death of the Founder and found that it said that with his dying breath he had sworn that his descendents would one day remember his power and continue his fight against the elves. The founder had four children, just like he had four familiar's. And each of his children founded their own country and become the royal family of that country. Those was the beginning of the Kingdoms of Albion, Tristain, and Gallia, as well as the the country of the church, Romalia.

So if Louise was one of these descendents, than that meant that there were three more of them.

Axel would have to find them. Hunt them down and make them cast a summons spell. And if they didn't summon Roxas or Xion, he would just kill what ever familiar was summoned and make them do it again. After that, he was fairly sure that if he could teach either Roxas or Xion the summoning spell, than they could be able to summon the other as a familiar, since their natures were identical.

He only needed to hunt down a talentless mage when his only hint to go on his that they are the descending of someone who died six thousand years ago. How hard could it be?

Axel opened his eyes and noticed that there was a shadow being cast on him. Turning his head he spotted the chief from the kitchens. "What do you want?" He asked. It was obvious that he wanted something from Axel. No other reason for a cook to come all the way to the library.

The man looked down at him before falling down to his knees and bending over to place his head on the ground, groveling at Axel's feet. "Please. Please help Siesta." The man begged. It took Axel a second to remember that Siesta had been the name of the maid girl. "She was taken by a nobleman to be... to be... to be his mistress. His sex slave." The man chocked. Axel's eyebrow went up at those words. It brought back memories of when he was teaching Xion how to get around in a crowd and she asked him what she should do if someone grabbed her. Those were good times. He had almost wished that someone had grabbed her out in public. It would have been funny to watch.

"Please. Siesta and the rest of the staff. They are like my children to me." The chief said, looking up at Axel with blood shot eyes. He had clearly been crying recently. "Please do not let Count Mott touch her. She is too young to lose her innocence like that."

"Touching." Axel said, trying to ignore the thing in his chest. Now was a time for logic, not emotions. "But what do you want me to do about it?"

"You... you are not like the other nobles. And you are strong. Strong enough to over power even a triangle class mage like Count Mott. You could rescue Siesta." The cook begged.

"And then what? I bring her back here? You do realize that will just cause even more trouble, don't you?" Axel said, trying to keep his disinterested tone of voice. "The only real solution would be to kill the man."

"Then kill the damned bastard!" The cook shouted angrily. "After everything he as done! All of the families he has broken, and the woman he had raped and enslaved! The evil bastard deserves to die!" Axel paused as he briefly considered what he had just heard. For some reason he imagined Xion, or Tabitha, or Sylphid being the victim of the rape. Rage pumped through his body.

He closed his book and sighed. "So... where is the Mott guy?" Axel said, glancing over that the cook. The man's eyes began to water and he bowed again and again, thanking Axel for what he was going to do.

Well, it had been a while since he had killed someone. He was a little over due.

* * *

Count Mott was in his master room, preparing himself for what he was sure would be a long and pleasurable night. He had just bought a pretty young girl from Tristain's magic academy, and he could hardly wait to try her out.

He didn't feel any sort of guilt over doing such things. After all, he was a messenger for the royal family, he was important and blessed with magic by the founder. So it was his right to partake in the young woman of the land where he was such a key figure.

If anything the commoner girl brought it on herself. No noble in all the lands had that kind of beauty, so it was a crime against god that some common filth be allowed to possess it. That raven black hair and deep dark eyes. It was not a look from this land. It was clear that good wished such girls to be taken away, and through his actions maybe they would know of the Founder's blessing before he was done with them.

Mott moved across him room to his mirror, looking at his mud brown hair and eyes. He hated the look. It was too much like his father. Why did he have to look like that man how had never given a damn about him. Why couldn't he have the darker, striking features of those peasant girls? Why could they be allowed beauty beyond him.

That is why he collected them, and that is why he punished them. Those beautiful girls.

Mott grabbed at the tar like goo that he kept at his mirror and pushed it through his hair, trying to darken it, rubbing it on his pale naked skin. He wanted it gone. All those things that made him like his father. Like that man who choose to help the worthless commoner instead of his own family or country. It was just like Mott's mother had always told him, 'Do not love the dogs, they are useless and you will get nothing out of them. The noble cow is better.'.

There was a knock on the door. "Count Mott. The girl has been prepared. Do you wish for me to bring her here?" A guard asked in a disconnected voice, as if he was informing the noble that his supper was ready, rather than asking him if he was ready to violate a young woman.

"Yes! Bring her here at once!" Mott shouted. He could feel the same steering that he felt before every new play thing's first time. He knew that she would try to put on a brave face, but she would scream. Those whores always scream.

Mott turned back to the mirror, trying to only see the darkness that he had smeared over himself. He was not Count Mott tonight. Tonight he would be the animal. A savage grin crossed his face but then he saw a shadow moving behind him in the mirror.

Before the mage could even react, a hand was clasped over his mouth and some kind of blade was pulled across his neck, cutting open his throat so that his attempts to call out in surprise only caused blood to come spewing from the cut, splattering red all over his mirror.

Mott fell to the ground, his every attempt to gasp for air only causing more and more of his blood to come flying out of his neck, dyeing the carpet red. Mott looked up, his mind not able to process what was happening. It was all just too fast.

Then he saw a man standing over him. His hair as red as the blood that now covered the room, the man was dressed in a pitch black coat. Mott stared up at him as the man watched him die with a disinterested expression. The last thing the Count thought before the darkness took him, was that those green eyes were the most beautiful he had ever seen.

Mott's head it the blood soaked carpet, causing a soft squishing sound.

Axel leaned over the body and his hand began to glow red hot. Placing the hand over the man's chest, he burned a hand print onto the body. "Sorry about this. But I have to make it good." Axel said, taking his Eternal flame in hand. "Best to make sure the message sticks with people."

Axel worked quickly and he was long gone before the guard had returned with Siesta.

The two stared at the body of Mott, have covered in the dark tar he had been rubbing on his body with a hand print burned into his chest and 'VIII' edged into his forehead. He was laid out on the carpet, his arms and legs spread wide so that everyone could see that the family jewels had bent cut out, and his dick had been peeled like a banana.

Over, by the body, partially soaked in blood was a note. 'To any who would dare abuse their power over the people, your time is coming. Lea the Dancing Flames.'

* * *

 **Complete Chapter 3**


	6. Xion 2

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Xion was rather uncomfortable as she walked through the streets of the city. It wasn't the heat, or the way that people would stare at her as she passed. No. It was the fact that she was forced to wear a dress, a plan, brown, itchy dress that she had to wear in order to blend into the crowds as much as possible. The stupid thing was uncomfortable, hot, smelled funny, and just wasn't Xion's style.

She missed being able to walk around in her dark hooded Organization clock. But unfortunately, the magic that prevented people from realizing just how outlandish her clothes were had worn off, and Xion didn't personally know the spells needed to redo the charm.

She regretted not learning it. It was a powerful and useful spell. One that could even make Donald and Goofy seem completely ordinary in most worlds. Xion had always taken it for granted, but now that she didn't have it, she was having a much harder time blending in.

Even after she had changed to more common clothes, she ran into the problem of her hair. It seemed that black hair was extremely rare in the world she now found herself in. Her appearance was too cute and earned too much attention.

Xion had considered just packing up what little she had managed to get and leaving this world for another one, perhaps one where the existence of other worlds was already known. The was no reason not to, but every time she opened up a Corridor of Darkness, she hesitated. She didn't understand it, but something made her want to stay.

Xion made three runs through the market district, but she never had a chance to steal anything. She sighed and turned back towards the Cathedral and the tall tower that she had been staying in the last few days. It wasn't much, but the small room at the top of the tower was already growing on her. She didn't even mind the bells that rang every fifteen minutes. She had gotten used to them.

Xion looked at some of the food stands. She had some money that she managed to snatch before the ward on her cloak wore off, but since she didn't know the value of the coins or what they were called, she was hesitant to try to use them.

Xion had been more or less a sheltered child, Axel and Roxas would have killed anyone who had tried to hurt her. Axel had been their over protective big brother who had refused to let anything happen to either her or Roxas. He had always been the one out gathering the information with the humans, trying to shelter Roxas and Xion from the cruelty of the worlds. But now that Xion was on her own, she had no idea how to talk to people. She had never talked to anyone other than Axel and Roxas, unless you counted her short talks with Riku or Saix, and those had not been very pleasant.

"It's his Holiness!" Someone shouted. Xion looked over to see a large gathering of people at a nearby street. She wondered if there was a parade or something. Didn't matter, it was a distraction that allowed her a chance to grab a piece of bread as she followed the crowd that gather to the cry. The street was full of excited and cheering voices. Xion let herself be guided with them until she had gotten to the street. Then her eyes widened as she saw the man.

It was him, the man who had stolen her kiss. Dress in his white robes with gold trim, with his funny hat balanced on his head. A gold staff in his hand was striking the stone street as he slowly walked past. Xion found it hard to take her eyes off the man. She had almost taken a step out of the crowd to move towards him before she had caught herself thinking about joining him. She planted her feet firmly on the ground. She wouldn't move, she didn't want to have anything to do with that man. Xion's left hand burned and her feet seemed to want to walk forward, but she refused to give in to whatever it was that was trying to draw her out.

Once she finally managed to pull her eyes off of the man she forced herself to focus on something else. Right behind 'his Holiness' were four women dress in priestess's clothes, long white robes that covered their arms and legs and head dresses that hide most of their hair, leaving only their faces and hands visible.

Seeing these people moving towards the Cathedral where she was staying, Xion had an idea. No one would be able to see her black hair if she was dress like those girls had been. She would be able to move around freely and perhaps get some food from the Cathedral kitchens. And... maybe get a closer look at that man... No! She didn't care about that creep! He was a pervert!.. Whatever that meant.

Xion faded back into the crowd as best as she could before starting over to a dark alley. She had a plan of action, now she just had to pull it off.

* * *

Xion had put back on her old organization robes and had snuck back into the cathedral in order to find some clothes that would hopefully make her stop standing out so much. The small room she had at the top of the tower had not prepared her for just how vast the holy place really was. It had to be roughly three times the size of the Beast's castle, and were that castle was more or less deserted, this one was crawling with guards and worshippers.

Xion had almost by spotted three times as she aimlessly walked through the corridors. "I am so lost." Xion whined weakly as she collapsed against the wall. "Stupid palace. Stupid guards. Stupid pervert. Stupid world." With each short sentence she hit her head on her knees. "Why am I even still here?"

"Intruders!" A guard shouted, causing Xion to jump, wondering if she had been spotted. She wasn't sure how powerful people were in this world. Should she escape through the Corridor of Darkness? But the fright passed as she registered the words. 'Intruders' as in more than one.

She could hear several foot steps and the echo of jingling armor as a group of guard ran in her direction. Xion jumped up into the rafters above her, out of sight as the guards went past. "They where heading for the vault. Someone inform his Holiness!"

After they were gone, Xion came back down and stared off in the direction they went. She knew that she should just get out of there, wait for everything to die down and then try again, but the girl was curious as to what exactly was going on. So she ran along after the guards, her feet making no noise as she glided across the castle's stone floors.

Xion moved faster and faster, a crease forming over her brow as she started to sense something. It wasn't like any magic she had felt before. It was... unnatural.

Rounding a corner near where this strange magic was coming from, she found the guards she had been following. She swallowed hard.

It was probably the first time she had ever seen corpses before. Whenever a heartless killed someone, there bodies and hearts were consumed by the darkness and disappeared from the worlds. Something similar happened whenever a more mindless Nobody killed something. Though in that cause, the name of the person or object was erased.

So Xion was hardly ready to see the half dozen men lying on the ground with wide unfocused eyes, their bellies slashed open and bleeding out on the floor, their hearts already gone. It was enough to make the girl a little queasy. But she snapped out of it when she heard a loud crash and the sound of mad laughter.

Slipping into the shadows, Xion approached the final corner and glanced around to see two men. One a large shirtless man with dark skin and white hair who's body sported several tattoos. The other a shorter man with blond hair dressed in an old fashion bright blue sailor suit.

But the thing that caught Xion off guard, the thing that the strange magic was coming from, where small rat like blue and black creatures that surrounded the two. There were at least a dozen of them, the small creature that reminded Xion of the shadows she used to fight. But these were not Heartless. They were not creatures of pure darkness that fed off the hearts of the living. These creature were somehow even more unnatural. Xion couldn't even describe the magic that composed these creature's bodies. If forced to try to put words to it, she would have to say that it was like a strange halfway point between a somebody and a nobody, both having a heart and not having one at the same time.

"This is too easy." The shorter man laughed. As the creatures worked together to tear open a hole in the vault wall. "I can't believe we are getting paid for this when these creatures are doing all the work!"

"I don't like this, brother." The taller man said in a deep more serious voice. "These creatures are not natural. They go against the teaching of the founder."

"Don't start talking that religious nonsense while we are robbing the church, dumbie!" The shorter man said. "Now come on, the kid wanted us to get some kind of mirror. So get to the getting."

The larger man shivered. "That boy frightens me, brother. We shouldn't be working for him. Nothing good will come of it."

The smaller man laughed. "Yeah, I crap my pants every time I see the brat, but who cares as long as he pays well."

"That boy is the devil. I'm sure of it." The large man said.

"Stop in the name of his Holiness!" A new group of guard shouted as they ran up, this one holding staves rather than spears.

"Oh, lookie lookie. Some more things to play with." The smaller man said as he turned to group, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"What in the devil..." One of the guards gasped as he saw the creatures darting around.

"Get them!" The small man shouted and the mouse like monsters obeyed.

The creature sank beneath the surface as the mages casted their spells. Xion watched as the humans began to panic, the creature circling around them with the tips of their ears sticking out through the stone floor, like sharks preparing to strike. And when the monsters did strike, the humans were quickly overwhelmed.

The short man laughed as the guards where being torn apart. "That's right! Die! Die!" He laughed.

"Brother, we have a job to do." The larger man scolded the smaller one.

"Don't rain on my fun!" The smaller man shouted back, crossing his arms in a very juvenile manner. "If you are in such a hurry, then why don't you open the vault already, Jack."

The larger man nodded walking up to the vault and placing his large dark hands on either side of the metal door. The man closed his eyes and let out a low growl as magic began to flow through the tattoos on his arms into the stone wall. The Earth magic that was reinforcing the stone began to weaken as the man over powered it with his own. Soon the rock began to dissolve into sand, leaving no trace of wall as the metal plate fell to the ground with an awkward smacking sound.

The smaller man cackled as he jumped into the vault, shoveling through things until he found what he was looking for. "Here we go!" The man laughed as he held up a small book. "Hard to believe that the church would up so much worth in a moth eaten thing like this." The man said as he sook the thing, watching as the dust flew out from off the cover and between the pages.

"That is not important to us, brother. We've completed our job. Now let us be going." The large man said as he sook the sand from underneath his fingers.

"Halt!" Xion glanced to the side to see another group of guards had shown up, this time lead by the man who had stolen her first kiss. Xion felt her left hand twitching as she stopped the man in his white robes and long golden hair.

'On a reckon mission, you never interfere. Information is more valuable than all the mummy in the worlds. Get the info, get out, then we make a plan of attack. We never go rushing in. Got it memorized?' Axel's voice reminded Xion as she watched from a point out of sight. But another voice was also there.

'Stand by your master.' A woman's voice commanded in the back of Xion's mind. And for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was her own voice. That it was her that wanted her to stand by the man.

But that made no sense. He was not her master. She had no master. She was her own person. No a doll... she was... not... a... a... She was a shield. Meant to defend her master.

The unknown creatures began to attack again, and this group of guards was hardly more effective than the last.

" _istch wef es menra!_ " The man finished a long spell which produced a blinding light, pushing back the dark creatures, even destroying some.

"No no no!" The smaller of the invaders shouted in anger. "Focus your attack on the Pope! Don't let him use his void magic!" He ordered the shadows, pointing at the golden haired man.

The creatures did as they were told, moving in on the golden haired man and cutting through the guards that tried to protect him. The man tried to cast his spell, but he didn't have the time.

'PROTECT YOUR MASTER!' The voice commanded her.

Xion dashed out of her cover as one of the creatures made a lung towards the Pope. Her keyblade flashing into existence as she swung it through the monsters back, chopping the thing in two so that it disappeared in a puff of dark colored smoke.

The Pope and guards where shocked by her sudden appearance as she spun around, destroying two more of the monsters.

Her eyes passed over all of them as they all seemed to focus on her, or the key in her hand.

"No! You... who are you!? Why do you have one of those!?" The smaller man shouted, pointing at the blade.

"Brother." The larger man said, a small amount of worry in his voice. Xion wondered if they had seen a keyblade before. It was unlikely, but then why were they so scared.

"Kill her! Kill her kill her kill her!" The man shouted again and again.

Xion noticed the creatures trying to disappear beneath the surface again, but she wouldn't allow that. "Gather!" She shouted, channeling her magic into a magnetic disturbance in the air around her keyblade. Then she released the disturbance into the air above her, pulling in both the small creatures and the guards' swords and helmets.

Then Xion slashed through them, cutting them to pieces before her spell could ware off.

"No! No! No! No! No!" The small man shouted childishly as he stomped on the ground in front of him.

"Brother, we have what we came here for. I suggest we retreat." The larger man said as he gestured to the book.

The smaller man gritted his teeth as he started at the girl. "What is your name, girly!" He shouted angrily.

"Xion." She said as she got into a stance. Changing from a one hand grip to a one and a half hand grip to increase the power of her strikes. She planned to finish them off with her next attack.

"Well then, I'll remember that! Your life belongs to the northern flowers!" He shouted as he pulled out a long metal sword with a blunted point. It looked like a rather thick and unwieldy rapier. An odd weapon, though Xion wasn't one to take there.

The short man whispered a few words, a spell. Xion prepared to block the attack, but to her surprise, it only summoned up a smoke screen.

"Aero!" She shouted, blowing away the smoke with a summoned wind, trying to make sure she wasn't about to be attacked from the shadows, but the two intruders were already gone. "Where did they go." Xion mumbled to herself. Axel had always told her to never let a target get away because most of them would learn from their mistakes and be that much harder to kill the second time around. But it was no good. With the monsters gone, she had no way of tracking them.

"You have returned to me, my Familiar." A calm, gentle voice said from behind the girl. She froze, turning her head to see the blond man standing there behind her with a small grin. She started to run away from him as fast as she could. "Stop!" He shouted.

The command was short, but Xion found that her legs suddenly felt like they were made of stone as she froze up, stumbling and falling to the floor. She got up easily enough, but when she tried to move forwards her body wouldn't let her.

"Move. Move." Xion said to herself again and again, but she couldn't. Panic started to swell up inside her.

'You don't want to move.' The voice in the back of her head said.

That wasn't true. She wanted to. She wanted to move. But she couldn't.

"Return to me." The man said.

Xion found her legs moving of their own accord, pulling her back to the man with the golden hair. With each step she took she felt herself dying a little more inside.

The man placed a hand on her cheek. "You have returned to me, my Gandalfr, my shield." He said with a smile. He seemed completely unconcerned with the tears that where coming from Xion's eyes as she watched him in horror.

She was his plaything. She was nothing more than a doll.

* * *

 **63% of my class failed their exams... I swear I am not that bad of a teach. What ever.**

 **Unlike Axel, Xion and Roxas had always been weak to memory based magic, so Xion is going to have to find a way to overcome it, or become the Pope's alterboy. And if that happens, Axel is going to have to kill a Pope.**

 **I'm thinking about what Axel's opinion of Namine would be. He'd probably think she's a fucked up little girl with serious jealousy ensues and a tendency to steal people's lives away and play with them like dolls. Not to mention she constantly changes sides. First working for that one flamboyant nobody, then betraying him with Axel, then she's helping Sora, then she's helping Anson the wise, then she's betraying him too. She just does whatever the fuck she wants.**

 **I suppose when you can alter people's memories, what is the point of staying constant.**

 **The point is, if Tiffa summoned Namine instead of Roxas, would Axel kill her on the spot?**


	7. Axel 4

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Lord Osmond, the headmaster of the The Tristain Academy of Maigc, was an old man, but not until recently had he ever really considered retiring. He remembered when teacher had been fun, and when the most stressful thing he would have to worry about was worrying about where he would find a new secretary after his pervious one inevitably quit from all the sexual harassment. Not that he ever had very much trouble there, after all, he wasn't picky as long as they were of age and had a nice butt. But more recently he was starting to run into more and more problems. It had all started with that Vallière girl, actually all of it seemed to have something to do with her.

First there was the problem of her lack of talent in magic. The explosions she caused where destructive beyond the level of most students' most deliberately damaging spells. The cost of repairs and of lawsuits against the school because of injures was almost unbelievable. It got to the point where they had actual told Louise to never even try to use magic, which kind of defeated the purpose of even being at a magic school. But they couldn't kick the girl out, not without expecting a visit from the girl's even more famously destructive mother.

It seemed to have worked out fairly well, though there were a few incidents. Then came the Spring Time Summoning Ritual. None of the teachers or students had expected Louise to be able to summon anything, then there would have been a valid reason to dismiss her and that would have been that. But to everyone's shock, she had summoned something. And not just any something, but a human. It was outlandish and unheard of, but the girl had done it, so she stayed.

Osmond could still remember Professor Colbert coming into his office to inform him and show him a copy he made of the runes that had appeared on the man's chest. The familiar runes of Lífþrasir, one of the four Legendary familiars of the Founder, Brimir. Osmond shuttered at the implications of such a thing. It would mean that the Louise was actual a void mage, and if word of that got out... who knew what would happen. Most likely war would break out over the right to possess the girl or kill her, claiming that her existence went against Brimir's blessing or something. It would be a horrible blood bath, and not something the old man wanted to place on the shoulders of such a little girl. The knowledge that she was in some way responsible would be horrible for any one to deal with.

So the head master wished to just sweep the whole thing under the rug, but unfortunately the familiar decided to draw attention to himself; fighting a duel against one of his students, acting like a psycho, openly denouncing his master, declaring himself to be in the service of one of their top students, bushing off a teacher as if she was a child, and showing off magic that they could not identify.

The man was powerful, a maniac, and barely being kept in control by some kind of deal he had with Tabitha. Students and teachers alike were terrified of this man, begging for something to be done, but there was nothing that Osmond could do. After all, a familiar is an extention of there master, and even if he declared himself separate from Louise, the law begged to differ. Any use of force against the man would be the equivalent of a use of force on the noble girl herself in the eyes of the law.

Then he had received the letter. Princess Henrietta was planning on visiting the academy for the Exhibition, the show of sorts where all the second year students would show off there knew familiars.

For the life of him, Osmond couldn't understand why the Princess would want to come, but he had to figure out a way to secure the place while she was there. Between the master thief Fouquet, the serial killer Lea, and the unpredictable familiar Axel, Osmond wanted to beg the Princess not to come. But he couldn't, it was not his place to question her decision, just to act upon her wishes. He could only pray to the Founder that nothing went wrong.

* * *

Axel took a deep breath, the weeks of research and endless hours of work had come to this moment. He lifted the short scepter he had taken from Mott when he had killed the perverted nobleman. "I, Axel, in the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar." He said calmly though the new heart in his chest felt like it was having some kind of crises.

The signal stones of light that Axel had created to act as a catalyst to make sure that the one summoned would be a being with a light attribute, began to glow with a soft silver light that illuminated the room, casting away all the shadows. Axel's own nothingness magic energy mixing with the light.

He could feel it, the spell working fast, ripping apart the air around him as it tore through time and space, reaching out for what Axel could not have obtained with his own two hands.

A lime green oval appeared in the air, just like the books described it and Axel's new heart leapt up into his throat as all prayed to gods that he usually not give two shits about, that it would be her. The portal started to shrink and standing there in her own black coat uniform of the Organization, was Xion.

"Xion." Axel said, it was hardly more than a whisper as he rushed forward throwing his arms around the small girl, breathing in her smell, holding onto her as if afraid she would disappear. "You're here. I finally got you back." Axel said, mosture coming to his eyes.

"Yes... master." Xion said in a dull voice. Axel's heart fell into his shoes.

"Xion... what are you talking about. Stop goofing around." Axel said, trying to keep his voice steady as fear took over him.

"I am sorry, Master, but I do not understand what you mean." The girl said. She looked up at him with eyes that were completely blank. "I am master's familiar."

"Is this what you left me for?" Axel's head whipped around to see Saix standing behind him, the Nobody had the usual emotionless look on his scarred face.

"Saix..." Axel mumbled. He looked exactly like Axel had remembered him, long blue hair and pale golden eyes that seemed cold, evil even, with a 'x' shaped scar over his face. Axel's original self had been friends with Saix's original self, and the friendship continued for a while after they had become Nobodies together.

"Aren't we friends?" The voice that came from the blue haired Nobody wasn't his own. Suddenly the man was gone, and Tabitha was in his place. "Were you just using me? Why do you choose that doll over me?"

"She isn't a doll!" Axel shouted, anger flaring up inside of him. He remembered how the Organization had treated Xion, like she had been worthless or replaceable. The called her the doll, said that she was even less then nothing. But she had been more than all of those bastards combined.

"She is a doll." Saix said as his image replaced Tabitha's again. "Just kill her, and summon me."

"No! She isn't a doll!" Axel shouted, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned back to Xion, only to see that her face was gone, replaced by a short sequence of runes. Axel flinched away in shock. "I am just a doll. If I break, then I should just be replaced." Xion's voice echoed around Axel.

Axel watched as Xion's body began to crack, and then exploded into crystal dust. "No!" Axel screamed.

* * *

Axel's eyes shot open, his breathing was heavy as he sat up in his pial of hay. "It... it was just a dream." Axel mumbled, trying to chase away the memory of it. He knew that there was a chance that either Xion or Roxas wouldn't be able to resist the effects of the runes. Both had shown themselves to be weak to memory based magic. But Axel couldn't let that stop him. He needed to find a way to summon them. If the runes did have a strong effect on them, then that would just have to be the next objective.

"Papa?" Axel turned his head to see the baby dragon, Illococoo beside him in the nightdress they had given her after finding her cuddled up to Axel that one morning. Axel didn't really see any problem with it. Regardless how she looked, she was still just a baby, huddling up to there parents was natural to them. Though it still seemed odd to him that she would start calling him papa. "You okays?"

"I'm just peachy." Axel said with a chuckle, trying to put on the air that nothing was wrong. "I just had a really weird dream. One where food was eating people."

The baby dragon's eyes widened. "Food eating people." She said with a mixture of wonder and maybe a bit of fear. "But then what do people eat?"

"Grass." Axel glanced over to the side to see Tabitha, laying in her bed which had been moved down into the stables. Actually, the stables had been changed a lot since that first night the Nobody had been in it. Where before there had hardly been enough room for Illococoo's true dragon form and just a pill of hay, now there was considerably more.

Axel had used some home made magic cornerstones in order to use some space magic. Space magic wasn't all that useful in a fight, since it took a lot of power and concentration, even if you did have a talent for it. Usually the end result would just be a teleporting bullet, or a quick move across a large room, something that only lasts a fraction of a second. But by attaction the magic to objects, it can be used for several different things. So Axel carved some magic cornerstones and used it to increase the size of the room over ten fold. The space was huge, much bigger than even the noble's dorm rooms. Axel had dug out a spot and created an indoor pool, had moved in several work benches which held the books that he had taken from the library, he even brought in a table for them to eat meals at.

Since the room was so big, Tabitha decided to move in, bringing her bed with her. Axel had considered grabbing a bed from himself, but the things were too soft for his liking. He was used to the rock hard beds of the Nobodies' depressing castle. Even the hay was softer than those things, and it was much more to his liking.

Louise and Kirche had tried to take Tabitha out of it, saying that it wouldn't do for her to be with such an older man. Not that the two of them were even really sleeping together, and even if they had, the age gap wasn't that big. Regardless how they looked, Tabitha was really almost seventeen years old, and Axel himself was just a very mature looking eighteen, though he looked about twenty six.

"But grass tastes yacky!" Illococoo whined.

"Well then, you better make sure that it is you who eats the food and not the food that eats you." Axel joked, the baby dragon nodded quickly. "Lets just get back to sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

Axel leaned back down, but sleep didn't quickly. He had to admit to himself, that he actually did like being around Tabitha and Illococoo. But even so, he still wanted his old friends back.

His thoughts towards the little girl and her baby dragon were similar to the ones he had for Xion and Roxas. He wanted to protect them. To shelter them from all the wrongs in the world that might ruin their gentle ways. He wanted to keep them near because they made him feel like he was important to someone.

"I'm not replacing them." Axel told himself. "I will bring you two back... but I don't know what I will do after that." Axel closed his eyes, refusing to think about it any further. He murmured a spell that forced him into a deep dreamless sleep.

He would not change from his chosen path. He was a raging fire, and he wouldn't change. Not for anyone. Not even for himself.

* * *

Princess Henrietta smiled and waved from the back of her royal coach as she road through the entrance of the Tristian Magic Academy. Students gathered on either side of the roadway leading up to the academy's main building, all of them screaming her name.

Henrietta was quite popular, considered to be the heart of the nation since the unfortunate death of her father, the former king of the nation. Though whether her popularity was because of her policies or her natural beauty and charm, it was hard to say.

Henrietta's shoulder length purple hair worked well at framing her gentle, pale face and light brown eyes. Her smile was enough to send up cheers from the gathered students. But even though everyone was so glad to see her, her eyes were only searching for one face as she scanned the crowd for any sign of bright pink hair.

Her eyes jumped from face to face, but nowhere could she find her distent cousin and childhood friend, Louise, the girl who was the entire reason she had risked coming to the year's exhibition. She wanted so badly to her again, to have someone who she wouldn't have to pretend to be strong with. Someone who would be able to see her cry. But it was no good with this dense crowd of students, it was impossible to find anyone.

Henrietta was about to give up hope when her eyes spotted something odd. A large hole in the crowd where only three people stood. One was a small girl dressed in a school uniform with bright, sky blue hair and a long staff in hand. She seemed to be much more interested in the book in her hand than she was in the passing princess.

The second girl was much taller with darker skin and dark red hair. She clearly had a look of a Germanian and her school uniform was looking strained with the difficulties of keeping in the watermelon landslide of her chest. She stood with a pouting look on her face as she watched the princess coming by, as if jealous that the purple haired royal was stealing all the attention.

But both of these people were normal compared to the last person. A man dressed in a black robe held closed with silver chains. His dark red hair was similar with that of a Germanian, but his pale skin was different from the darker skin of the Germanians. He stood with his arms crossed and a flat mouthed expression as he stared hard at Henrietta as she rode by. The princess's smile faltered as she stared back into his bright green eyes that seemed to be weighing her life.

It was clear that this man was the reason that there was a gap in the crowd. The students around the edge of the gap threw him worried glances and pressed up against their neighbors as they tried to get as far away from the red haired man. He was clearly dangerous, but who was he? What had he done to bring about all this fear?

Henrietta did her best to pull her eyes away from the man, but she could still feel his gaze. Those bright green eyes that seemed to stare right through her.

As the princess headed away from him a small smile passed over Axel's lips. "Got ya."

* * *

Axel had not expected a chance like this to literally stroll right in front of him. He had been expecting to have to travel across the country to pull the girl out of her bed in the middle of the night, but it seemed like fate was on his side now.

Ever since he started reading up on the connection between the Founder and the royal families, Axel had become more and more sure that they were the key to the power of the void, and summoning a nobody.

It hadn't taken him long to find that Louise was really a blood relative of the Tristian royal family, her grandfather being a bastard of a former king.

The royal families were constantly inbreeding in order to keep the blood line pure. So if a branch family member like Louise the Zero could inherit enough nothingness magic to call upon a nobody familiar, than surely a pure blooded royal could do the same.

It all made sense. The taboo surrounding a royal family member summoning a familiar was supposed to be to discourage favoritism towards their underlings who managed to summon the same type of familiar, but it was much more likely that the rule was to prevent beings like Axel himself from being summoned. An action that would mark them as a user of the void.

He stared hard at the princess wondering if she would have the power that he sought after. If only the moons and sun were in the right position in the sky. They he could just kidnap her at that very moment and force her to preform the ritual.

As it was, he thought he might have a way to get by that limitation in the summoning ritual, but best to use an expendable pawn to try it out. If it back fired and killed the princess then he would have to fight another one. Not worth the risk.

Even so, with the girl so close by, Axel could work on winning her favor in some way, thereby side stepping the need to force her to preform the ritual against her will.

It would also give him the chance to confirm whether or not she even possessed the qualities needed to summon Roxas or Xion before he went through all the trouble.

"Just wait a little longer. Roxas, Xion. I will get the two of you back." He mumbled to himself as the Princess left her carriage to speak to the headmaster. Possible plans forming in the back of his mind.

* * *

Louise didn't know what to do. Princess Henrietta had come all the way from the Palace to see the Exhibitions, but she didn't have a familiar to show her.

She had managed to summon a powerful being, but he was to far out of her control, and everyone knew it.

She couldn't show up on stage in front of the princess without anything to show. It wouldn't just be a shame upon her family, it would shame her in front of her best friend. The only real friend she had ever had.

She had always told Henrietta that she would become a powerful mage so that she could always stand by her side and help her, but she had never even managed to cast a single spell. She didn't even have an element. Or at least, not one that she could understand.

'Nothingness magic'

She had no idea what it was, she had tried to find out what her wayward familiar meant by those words, but so far her search was fruitless. She wanted to know if it was real. She wanted to know if their really was magic that she could preform, but she couldn't build up the courage to confront the man who had the answers she was looking for.

Axel was not just scary, he was a nightmare that walked like a man. An unreal force, cold and cruel who could not be stopped or hindered in any way. One who thought nothing of killing them and wasn't afraid to let them now it. He stood in plan sight in front of them and watched them shiver in fear and back away from him. Batting aside any attempts against him with disinterested ease. He had done everything in his power to sew the seeds of fear into the people surrounding him.

But... he had healed her burns. He had stood up for the maid and defended her when Guiche had assaulted her. He was friendly and gentle with Tabitha and her familiar. And he was spending every waking moment trying to find a way to reunite with his family.

It was like there were two sides to him; the cold hearted warrior, and the soft hearted older brother. The only real question was, which was his true self?

Louise nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard a frantic knocking at the door. "What idiot would be running around at this hour." Louise mumbled, trying to play off her sudden fright, even though no one had seen her being startled. The knock came again as Louise moved for the door. "I'm coming!"

But the moment she slid the lock on her door, the thing was pushed open and someone in a brown cloak pushed in past her. Louise was startled, but since the cloak was brown instead of black, she wasn't exactly scared.

"Wh...who are you!" She stammered as the door swung shut. Louise had pulled her wand and was pointing it straight at the intruder.

"I guess it have been a long time." A sweet and familiar voice said from beneath the cloak. Louise blinked in surprise and lowered her wand as Princess Henrietta rushed forward, pulling her into a hug. "Louise Françoise!" She shouted happily.

"Princess!" Louise said in surprise before breaking the hug and going down on one knee. "You shouldn't have come here. These quarters are unworthy of your grace."

"Oh stop that Louise Françoise. No one's around, so you can just call me Henrietta, like when we were children." Henrietta said grasping her hands and smiling down at Louise. "I've missed you so much Louise Françoise."

Louise smiled back. "I missed you too, pri... Henrietta." Louise said as she got up to give her old friend another hug. For a few moments Louise felt her cares drifting away, but they all came crashing back when the Princess began to speak again.

"Oh Louise, I am so glad I got to come here for the Exhibition to see you. I can't wait to see what you and your familiar have prepared tomorrow." Henrietta said as she leaned back to give her friend a kind smile, not noticing when the pink haired girl froze up. "Where is your familiar? I would love to meet it."

"Huh, he sleeps in the stables." Louise said adverting her eyes. It was not technically a lie, but not the whole truth either.

"Then you must have summoned a large and impressive familiar indeed. I just knew you'd be able to do it." Henrietta said smiling.

"Yeah he's pretty big alright, and impressive." Louise said thinking of the tall red haired man and his overwhelming presence and power. "Though he's a little... hard to handle."

"I look forward to seeing him tomorrow then." Henrietta said before they changed the subject to how the queen was doing and bringing up stories of when they were little girls. Though throughout the entire conversation, Louise couldn't help but to think about the Exhibition.

She had to find a way to get Axel to act as her Familiar, even if it was just for that one day. She would rather die then let the princess know that she was a failure.

So after Henrietta left to return to her quarters, Louise pulled on her own clothes and robe and left to go to the stables. She had to convince the red haired mage to be her familiar. She just had to.

* * *

"Ivaldi stood upon his slain foe. His bones were weary and his breath was heavy as smoke in his lungs, but he had done it. He had emerged victories where others had failed, and the dragon which had held his princess and people in its scaly hold was no more. Ivaldi had truly became the hero he had always claimed to be..." Axel read quietly to Tabitha and Illococoo. The nobody could hardly believe it. He was reading a bedtime story to a little girl and a shape-shifting baby dragon. What was even more ironic was that the story had a hero slaying a dragon in it.

It was apparently Tabitha's favorite book, 'The Hero Ivaldi'. It was such an innocent and childish thing. Something that surprised Axel more than he cared to admit.

He stopped when he could hear soft snores and turned his head to see Tabitha's eyes closed and her head pressed into her familiar's chest as the baby dragon hugged her, drooling slightly in her sleep. After some time Tabitha managed to get Illococoo to wear a nightgown while sleeping in her human form. Illococoo complained about it getting rapped up around her while she slept, but she did as her big sister told her to. Putting the book down, Axel pulled up the girls' blankets to cover them both before returning to his own nighttime works.

It wasn't so long ago that he had snuck off to another world to grab a few supplies from one of his emergency stashes that he had created in the case that the Organization betrayed him while he was out on a job. It wasn't much, but the basic elements for crafting dimensional fields and new enchantments and spells were all there.

He had wasted no time creating a barrier around the place in which he slept with Tabitha and Illococoo. One that would only allow them through and would throw up a wall of fire if anyone else ever tried to pass without his approval. The spell was complex, but the Orginization had made thousands of them in order to secure their home turf, so Axel was familiar with their workings and how to make them.

Though at the moment he was creating something rather different. He was crafting a spell.

Tabitha had shown interest in his method of spellcraft, so Axel had explained to her its workings. It wasn't like it was a big secret, and he gained some enjoyment from talking with the girl. And when she asked if he could create a spell for her to use if she ever lost her staff, he had simply responded with sure. It didn't take too long, about an half hour and he had crafted a blizzard spell.

To anyone who didn't know any better, they would say it was just a card, a colorful piece of paper with a picture of a blue snowflake on it. Though this design was simple something that Axel used out of habit from his days in Oblivion Castle. In truth you could use any medium to transfer the spell with. You simply needed to complete the matrix that converted the magical energy on the object and then have the user absorb that power into their bodies.

Axel had studied every book in the library that had even a mention of the summoning ritual. At this point the only thing he needed is to experiment with it. To test the knowledge he had gained and his theories about how to summon Roxas and Xion.

In true, there was nothing that still held him to Tabitha. Nothing, but his heart. In the weeks he had spent with the small girl he had grown to care for her and the baby dragon. The school was obnoxious but it wasn't as though it was any worse than anywhere else. Axel really didn't have anywhere he needed to be.

So he stayed. He stayed by the tiny blue haired girl, his little master, performing the small tasks she asked of him, keeping her company and telling her stories of the thing she had never been able to see before. She remained mostly quiet, but he had learned to read her well. She was a friend to him, and as such, he would burn to death anyone who tried to harm her.

Axel was putting the finishing touches on the spell card when he felt someone triggering his barrier and hear a squeak of friend. Spinning away from his work bench he called up his Eternal Flames. If someone was planning on taking him in his sleep, they would be dealt with; quickly and permanently.

* * *

Louise was shocked out of her wits when she came close to the stable where Axel slept and a wall of fire leapt from the ground to bar her path.

She staggered away from the flames as the waves of heat pressed down on her. The sudden bright orange light blinding her after the darkness of the stables. She covered her eyes, blinking fast to try to become adjusted to the light.

"Don't move." Axel mocking voice said from behind her. She froze as she felt metal against the skin of her neck.

"Please... I... I just..." Louise panicked. She thought that she was about to die. But to her surprise Axel lowered his weapon.

"Oh, its just you." He said in a bored voice. "What do you want?"

"You. You're not going to kill me?" Louise said awkwardly.

"That depends, why were you here?" Axel asked, glaring down at the girl. Even with the light of the fire gone, his green eyes were easy to see in the darkness.

"I just wanted to talk to you." Louise said quickly, hoping beyond hope that this man would not take offense to anything she had to say. "It's about the Exhibition."

"That event for showing off your familiars. Yes I suppose you are up shit creek there aren't you." Axel said stiffly as he crossed his arms and stared down at the girl.

Louise bit her lip. She wished he would just blink more, or at least put his weapons away. "I was hoping that I could convince you to act as my familiar during the event." Louise mumbled before holding her breath, waiting for one of the bladed weapons to slice off her head.

"And I would do this why?" Axel asked raising a single eyebrow.

"I... that is to say..." Louise was at a lose, she hadn't expected to get this far.

"We've been over this before. If you want me to do something for you. You need to have something I want. Got it memorized? Though to my knowledge, you don't have anything, do you?" Axel said with a disinterested wave of the hand as if he was telling her to get lost.

Louise started to tear up. "Please! I can't face the princess without a familiar! I don't want her to be disappointed in me! I want to show her that I am good enough to still be her friend! Please just help me! Just this once! I'll do anything you ask!" Louise sobbed as her stress overwhelmed her.

Axel stood there, considering the girl. So, she was a friend to the princess. Meaning she would probably try to keep him around whenever the princess could see. It would be a good chance for him to observe that possible summoner without having to resort to anything dangerous. Pretending to be a familiar for a few hours would be no harm to him.

"I must be going soft." Axel said, even though it was completely a calculated move. Louise stopped crying as she looked up at him with shock clear in her eyes. "I will tell my master that you wish to borrow me for the Exhibition. But remember that you owe me for this." Axel sound in a warning fashion. Louise nodded frantically, afraid that Axel would change his mind.

"Good, know if you excuse me. I've got some things to do." Axel said, turning the girl away as he went back to his modified stable.

Louise couldn't believe it. Not only was she alive, but her super scary and powerful familiar had agreed to play the part for the Exhibition. It had all gone almost too perfectly.

She raced back to her room and when she got there she barely had time to get to the bed before passing out as all the adrenaline left her.

* * *

When Louise woke up the next morning, she was more than half convinced that the entire thing had just been a dream. After all, why would the cold hearted familiar ever agree to help her with only a promise of a future favor in return. He had already given voice to his lack of caring for the noble girl and said that her word was worthless to him.

But no, she knew that it had really happened. She didn't know why he was doing it, whether it was out of real compassion or out of some hidden objective. Though she supposed she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. She was desperate enough to not care one way or the other.

Looking out the window, she saw the sun rising over the horizon and realized she had to start hurrying. After all, she had never actually spoken with Axel about what exactly his plans were for the Exhibition. Regardless how impressive of a fighter he might have been, he still needed to be able to put on a good display for the judges.

She had managed to get dressed and comb her hair before she paused, remembering the events of the last night. Going to his little den was probably a bad idea, unless she wanted to risk that home defense system of his roasting her alive. Maybe she should go to breakfast and try to find Tabitha instead.

Speaking with the near mute girl was still difficult, but not nearly as fatal.

Unfortunately, Tabitha never came to dining hall. There were only a few hours left until the start of the Exhibition and Louise was starting to worry. "Kirche, do you know where Tabitha and my familiar are?" Louise asked the red headed mage.

"Hm? Last I saw of them they were heading to the back of the school. I'm not sure why though. Tabitha mentioned something about 'practice'." Kirche said tapping her finger on her chin. "Why do you need to find them?"

"It's... the Exhibition's today." Louise said.

Kirche nodded understandingly. "So you need to have a familiar. Do you really think that Axel will agree to help you? He doesn't seem the type. Maybe we can find a magic creature to pretend to be your familiar for the day." Kirche suggested.

Louise shook her head. "I asked him last night. He agreed to do it in exchange for a favor in the future." Louise admitted. "But I never actually asked him what he was going to do for the event. So I'm trying to find him."

"You are actually going to trust him after..." Kirche started with a frown, remembering how he had forced her to use magic without any care for her safety. But she realized that Louise really didn't have a choice. If she wanted to say at the academy, then she needed to present the familiar she had summoned. Kirche sighed. "Alright, I'll take you out to them."

Guiding the girl out through the back entrance of the academy they could see Axel standing there with Tabitha and Sylphid, once again in her dragon form. Axel stood with his arms crossed as Tabitha faced a straw dumbie a little ways off. Louise and Kirche stopped, watching the two, wondering just what they were doing.

"Remember, the spell has a natural rate in which it wishes to be charged. Try to feel the flow of magic in order to figure it out." Axel instructed Tabitha who nodded.

Tabitha raised her right hand, but her staff was leaning against the wall a little distance away. She couldn't do magic without it. No normal human could.

"Load." Tabitha said slowly. "Channel. Focus. Visualize." She mumbled one word after another as she closed her eyes in concentration. "Realization. Blizzard."

Louise and Kirche were both shocked as a large cluster of ice crystals appeared in front of Tabitha, combining together to form a single large crystal before rocketing away from her. Even though she missed the target by a mile, she had still preformed magic without the use of a focusing instrument.

"Not bad, but you need to keep your eyes open during the visualizing phase. It is harder to form the spell that way, but if you don't then you won't be able to aim the result properly. Got it memorized?" Axel said with his cocky grin. "How about you try it again."

Tabitha nodded. This time she was silent, not even mumbling the names of the steps, only using the very last word. "Blizzard." She said quietly. The ice shard formed again and this time flew straight through the air and right through the straw dumbie's head, ripping the thing off.

"Nicely done." Axel said with a grin.

Tabitha turned to him and Kirche couldn't believe what she was seeing. There was a small smile on the little girl's face. It was the first time Louise or Kirche had ever seen Tabitha smiling, even if it was only a small one.

Axel reached out and patted the girl on the head. The was a kind and energetic smile on his face, not the sadistic smile that he usual wore when dealing with people, or the fake charm he used when he simply wanted something. This might have been even more unbelievable then Tabitha's smile.

Louise felt jealous as she watched them. It really did seem like a girl and her older brother. It reminded Louise a little of how her older sister Cattleya was always with her. Gentle and supportive.

"Remember though, aiming for the head isn't always the best plan. Better to aim for the chest. That way if you miss by a little you still hit something and with so many vital organs in one place, you will probably kill them anyways. Even if it won't be quick or painless." Axel swung his hand in the direction of the stuffed target and a fireball shot from his hand, smashing straight through the thing's chest and setting it a flame.

"Yes." Tabitha nodded, a slight bit of happiness in her voice. Then she spotted Kirche and Louise and the small smile vanished. "Company."

Axel's eyes darted in Louise and Kirche's direction as he reached out and grabbed onto Tabitha's staff, flicking it too the small mage who caught it effortlessly.

An aura of danger was coming from the red haired man until he realized who it was that had been watching them. "Spying isn't exactly a very noble pass time, girl." Axel said in a disapproving voice.

"We weren't spying!" Louise insisted before realizing that shouting was probably not the best idea. "I was just looking for you so that I could ask what the plan was for the Exhibition. That's all. The Exhibition is going to be starting soon, so..." Louise mumbled weakly.

Axel grumbled and started to scratch his head. "Right. Guess we need to do that." He said in irritation, as if it was a waste of his time. "With your leave, Master." He said to Tabitha, a show meant to show Louise that she was not in control of him. He might as well not have bothered, Louise remembered full well that she couldn't control this man.

Tabitha nodded though to Kirche's surprise she saw the girl's mouth twitch slightly during the gesture.

"So, where do you want to do this?" Axel said crossing his arms as he turned back to Louise.

"I um... I suppose my room would be the best place." Louise answered quickly. Axel nodded and followed the pink haired girl away leaving Kirche, Tabitha and Sylphid behind.

Sylphid gave a small whine as they watched them go, Tabitha also staring after them. Though Kirche herself was watching Tabitha's reactions.

"Tabitha... you aren't jealous that he is going with Louise are you?" Kirche asked grinning at the small blue haired girl. Tabitha didn't answer but took a book out of her cloak and turned her back on Kirche. It was as good as a yes for the fire mage. "Oh that is soooo adorable! My little Tabitha, you have fallen in love!" Kirche squealed.

"Kirche..." Tabitha said, snapping the girl out of her squeals.

"Hmm?" Kirche asked just before Tabitha's staff pulled out her legs from under her, sending Kirche falling backwards onto her bubbly butt. "Ouch!" Kirche cried as she started to rub her poor bottom. Wind picked up as Sylphid took off with Tabitha on her back, leaving the Germanian girl on the ground alone. "I was just saying." Kirche whimpered.

* * *

"So um..." Louise stammered nervously after she had sat down in her room with Axel standing across from her, looking as bored and angry as ever. She realized that this was the first time he had been back in her room since he had declared his independence from her, and that she had neglected to remove the hay from the corner of the room. She hoped that oversight wouldn't anger him. "What is the plan for the Exhibition?"

"You tell me. I hardly know or care about this event of yours." Axel said with a shrug.

"Right." Louise said swallowing and trying to pull herself together. She was the daughter of Karin the Heavy Wind. She needed to get a hold of herself. "The Exhibition is basically a talent show. You simply need to preform a feet of skill that would impress the judges."

"So I just need to do something that looks impressive." Axel said in a disinterested manner as he held out his right hand with the palm up. After a few moments a rainbow of fire started to rise up out of his finger tips, spinning into a sphere of colors. Louise had to stop herself from gasping at the beauty of it. She had heard of square class fire mages who could produce blue fire, but this was so unreal. "Will this do?"

"How do you do that?" Louise asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"Each color is a different density of fire magic; red is the least dense, purple is the most dense." Axel said simply. "Considering your reaction I'll take that as a yes, it will do." Axel said as he let the fire die. "So, when does this Exhibition thing start?"

"In a little more than an hour we are supposed to gather at the stage." Louise said, still in shock by those flames. Then she remembered what she had seen earlier that morning. "I saw you teaching Tabitha your style of magic." Louise said, testing the waters.

"Yeah, and?" Axel replied leaning back in his seat. He knew where this was going, but no point in not making her squirm. It was always funny, like watching a mouse trying to ask a cat for a piece of cheese.

"I just didn't know that you could teach others your kind of magic. I assumed that it was something unique to you." Louise said, trying to prase him in hopes that it would make him more likely to answer her request.

"I could teach the kitchen staff magic if I really wanted to. Not that I would." Axel said as he did an over dramatic yawn.

"What? But... they're all just peasants. They can't use magic." Louise said, though in the back of her mind she wasn't so sure.

"You only think that because you have such little knowledge of magic. I could write entire libraries with the things that you people down know about magic." Axel boasted with a grin. "For example, your magic."

Louise stiffened. "Could... could you teach me?" She asked, swallowing hard.

"Yes." Axel answered simply.

Louise gasped, not believing what she had just heard. "You will?"

"No." Axel said with his cocky grin, causing Louise to come crashing back down. "You asked me if I could, and I can. You ask me if I will, then the answer is that I won't." Axel said knowing full well that it was a cruel jock.

"But you have to!" Louise shouted, reason leaving her in her desperation to find out about the reason why she could never use magic. "You are the only one who can!"

"You are probably right there. I don't think you will be able to find anyone else here who knows how to preform nothingness magic, but I still won't teach you." Axel said shrugging.

"Why not!?" Louise demanded.

"Because, if you did learn, then you would be a threat and I would have to kill you." Axel said. Louise froze as his green eyes bored into her. "Just be glad that I am helping you this once, girly. Don't forget that you have no power to command me."

Dark flames licked around his hair, scaring Louise back into the real world. A world were she is a powerless little girl in front of a monster that she could never hope to beat, begging for a favor from him. He could kill her in an instant, and he knew it, and he knew that she knew it.

"I... I understand. Thank you for your generosity." Louise said as she cast her eyes downwards. In the end, he still held all the power.

* * *

The day was bright, but not too bright. Just enough clouds in the sky to keep the air tempered without casting a shadow over the lands. All and all, the conditions for the Exhibition couldn't have been more perfect.

Everyone said that it was the Founders way of blessing the visit of the Princess of Tristain. To see that the sun smiles upon her face as she witnessed the talents of the young man and women who would one day serve her court.

She was told this so many times that Henrietta felt like screaming for them all to just shut up. Honestly, they would thank her for the sun rising in the morning. There was a fine line between admiration and having gone of the deep end, and most of her subjects seemed to be in the latter category. She had so many embracing displays 'dedicated to her beauty' that she half wanted to smear dragon dung on her face to get them to stop it. The only thing that was stopping her was the suspicion that they would still say she was flawless even after being covered in shit.

That said, once she managed to drown out the fan worship of the crowd she was actually having fun watching the young mages and familiars putting on a show. Each one showing a different set of skills and a bond between them and their masters that was simply a thing of beauty.

She watched with amazement and a bit of envy as a smaller girl with bright blue hair flew about in the sky above them on her dragon familiar. What Henrietta wouldn't give to have such freedom. To be able to fly away whenever she wanted, to be free of this life she had been born into. But all too soon the dragon returned to the ground and the display was over.

"That was Tabitha, and her familiar Sylphid." The instructor who had been tasked to read off the announcement said. "Next up is Louise and her..." The man's voice dropped of and he seemed to pale. "Oh no."

Henrietta was confused. Why did the man suddenly seem worried. Glancing around she noticed that he wasn't the only one. Several of the other instructors and even the students whispered nervously to each other.

"How did she convince him to actually do it?" A nearby teacher asked her neighbor in a worried tone.

"What is going on?" Henrietta asked one of her bodyguards. But before she got her answer, her childhood friend Louise stepped up onto the stage, and standing right beside her with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face was the man with the red hair and green eyes, dressed in the same dark robe as before.

"This is my familiar." Louise said looking only a little less nervous than the audience. "His name is Axel... his time is, a mage."

Henrietta was dumb struck. A mage. Her childhood friend has summoned another noble?

Axel stepped forwards before glancing back at Louise. "Might want to take a few steps back." He said. Louise quickly did as she was told. Then Axel turned back to his terified onlookers. "Now lets get this party started!" He shouted throwing out his arms.

Axel's entire body burst into flames, covering from head to toe. There were screams of shock from the crowd as they watched the fire take on a rainbow of colors and start to twist around his body forming into a large orb before flouting up into the air over him, leaving Axel standing beneath it, undamaged by the mass of fire that he had just unleashed.

The ball spun in a multitude of colors as it grew bigger and bigger, until it was the size of a large horse. Then it split, the two halves turning into a pair of massive wings as the ball transformed into a giant flaming bird.

The fire bird flew in the air just above the students, drawing out shrill cries as it went, each student believing that it would burn them all to death. But after circling the gathering once it returned to the air above Axel before exploding, sending down small flakes of multicolored fire that all disappeared before reaching the ground. "Tada." Axel said in an almost taunting manner.

Henrietta couldn't believe what she had just seen. Louise's familiar had just preformed magic like nothing she had ever seen before. Not only that, but he did it without any kind of medium and without an incantation.

Her familiar wasn't powerful, he was insanely powerful. It was no wonder the students and staff were so wary of him. "Well, that could have gone a lot worse." The headmaster of the Academy mumbled off to Henrietta's right.

"Indeed. Do you think that Louise has finally managed to get a bit more control over her familiar?" A balding teacher replied from the other side of the old wizard.

"Unlikely, but I suppose it is possible." The headmaster replied.

Henrietta blinked before her eyes went to Louise, standing a good distance behind Axel, looking as frightened as the students and staff.

The announcer coughed awkwardly. "Yes well. Lets here it for Louise and her familiar, Axel."

As Axel and Louise left the stage, Henrietta watched them carefully. It was true that they didn't seem to share a close relationship like the other masters and familiars. The tension between them seemed more like that between a noble and a serving girl. Seeing the proud Duke's daughter so worried about angering this man was a worrying thing, but... it did make Henrietta curious about this man. This unknown mage who could call on fire without a wand.

* * *

Louise had been one of the last students to preform before the judges went away to decide.

As breath taking as the display with the fire had been, it had only been the familiar out there and without any interaction or instruction from Louise, which was what ended up losing the competition for the girl. As much as Henrietta wanted to give the prize to her childhood friend, it just won't have been right.

After some discussion, the judges finally decided that they would award Tabitha as the winner of the Exhibition.

Henrietta went up onto stage in front of the students of the Magic Academy and smiled down at them, making sure to keep up her public face. "Everyone. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being her today and for letting me witness all of your wonderful familiars." Henrietta said. The speech was just a speech, not a word of it really meant, but it was something that Henrietta had long since learned she had to do. "In my eyes you are all winners, but unfortunately there is only one prize. And so, it is my great honor to award..."

Henrietta was cut off by a panicked scream followed by a massive crash as something heavy hit the ground behind the stage were she stood, blowing her over.

The princess coughed as a wave of dust was knocked up into the air and when it settled she fond herself looking up at a massive metal golem like creature. It's body made of a dark purple and blue metal and a strange symbol on the center of its chest. In one hand was a mallet the size of a small tower and black chains hung from the creatures wrists.

It gave an unearthly roar as it swung its hammer through the air, steering up a massive wind.

Dozens of other smaller creatures appeared out of the air, most surrounding the Princess though some were scattered throughout the crowd too. Beings of several different shapes and sizes, each giving off this chilling aura as they moved around like puppets on the ends of strings.

The castle guard started to jump into action and the last thing Henrietta remembered before the strange darkness coming from the giant caused her to pass out was the words of her personal guard, Agnes, shouting. "Protect Her Highness!"

* * *

Agnes and the other women of the musket squad had rushed the stage in an attempt to get to their fallen princess, but their way was quickly barred by three of the strange creatures, these ones being large and fat with short arms and legs. The knight was found their appearance to be repulsing, their faces had no eyes or mouths, the strange purplish shell of their bodies looked soft enough but when they swung their swords to try to clear a path, the blades simply shattered on the creature's bodies.

Agnes pulled out her pistol and shot one of the creatures at point blank range, but the bullet seemed to just bounce harmlessly off its body. The monster responded by winding up a punch. Agnes stepped back to where she thought would be out of range of the short arms, but the creature's limb seemed to stretch with the punch, the hand becoming longer at the end of the swing, knocking Agnes back several feet onto the ground.

As the squad captain struggled to get back up she heard her squad members scream out on pain. Looking up she saw that two of the creature had some a sort of body slam, crushing her soldiers underneath their massive guts. It was a horrible sight, the twisted limbs of the proud women sticking out at odd angles from underneath the dark masses.

Agnes was still yet to recover when the third creature waddled up to her, standing over her, preparing to do the same to the captain as they did to her subordinates. Agnes bared her teeth at the monster and held out the broken stump of her sword. "Well, come at me then!" She shouted angrily at the creature.

It's belly bobbed up and down as if it was laughing at her before it started to jump. Agnes held her eyes open, determined to at least die with pride. But the fat creature never reached her as a ring of fire passed straight over her head, slicing the monster in two.

She barely had time to register that the monster was gone before a figure dressing in place passed over her head, cutting through the remaining two monsters with twin discs that were covered in pointed blades. It was the familiar of the pink haired noble girl. The fire mage.

Agnes watched in a state of shock as the red haired man continued towards the stage, slashing whatever monster got in his way to pieces before throwing one of his weapons at the outstretched arm of the giant as it reached for the princess. The giant gave a startled cry as the blade passed over its wrist and it backed up.

"Hey now, just so you know, I saw her first." The red haired mage said in a sarcastic tone. His thrown weapon reappearing in his free hand as he stepped between the giant and the princess. "If you want to kidnap her. Be ready to fight for it."

* * *

For one of the first times in Axel's existence, he had no fucking clue what was going on. It was rather annoying. This must have been what it felt like to be Sora.

Even when he was being summoned, he still had a pretty good handle of what was going on. When he was dying, he knew what was going on. Even when he was slowly developing a heart, he still had a fairly good handle on things. But right know he was completely clueless.

He didn't know what these things were. He didn't know where they had come from. He didn't know why they were attacking. He didn't even know whether or not he should even care.

He tried to sense the creatures' power to try to get an idea of what he was dealing with, but the results were not just confusing, they were impossible. He could sense not only dark magic from them, but both Nothingness and Heart based magic as well, even though those opposing forces could have canceled each other out. The only explanation Axel could think of was the the dark magic was acting as some kind of glue, holding together two forces that should not be able to exist at the same time.

Despite how ironic if felt for him to be the one thinking it, the things were truly abominations. Something that went against the natural order of reality. They were not heartless or nobodies. More like something that existed between a nobody and a somebody, as bazaar as that was.

Luckily Axel didn't need to understand them to know that he had to take them out. No for any moral reason of protecting the children, but because there was still the possibility that Princess Henrietta was the person he had been looking for and would be able to summon Roxas or Xion.

Even if there was only a narrow chance of that, it was still something that Axel would fight for. And if that meant killing a giant monster or two, then so be it.

Axel was keeping in close against the monster, using the the fact that its arms were ill positioned for close up attacks and its hammer was designed for midrange combat, to do some serious damage to its chest.

Axel slashed at the beast over and over again, leaving several cuts across its stomach as it tried to reach for him before he would dart out of the way and continue at another position.

Finally having more than enough of Axel's attacks, the monster began to spin rapidly around, holding out its hammer in such a way to create a massive wind that would blow Axel back, even if the Nobody managed to dodge the hammer strikes.

Once Axel had been pushed away from the creature it began to throw fireballs at him. Each one hitting the target until Axel was completely hidden in the smoke. The creature gave out a cry of victory, but it stopped when it heard Axel's bone chilling laugh.

"Seriously? Did you just try to stop me with fire?" Axel said as the smoke blew away, showing him standing there untouched and covered with dark crimson flames. "Let me show you how it's done. Bursting Firaga!" Axel held his twin weapons above his head and dozens of fireballs each the size of a large cat flew up into the air before curving around and smashing into the monster, each one setting off a large explosion of its own. The monster had been beaten up by the assault, but still managed to get back up to its feet. "Oh, still want mor..." Axel started by he heard a scream.

He froze as the voice registered in his mind. It was Tabitha.

He turned his head to see the blue haired mage girl with the other students that were trying to fight off the monsters that were attacking them. He had expected her to be fine. Her magic should have been strong enough to fight the creatures off. But Tabitha was huddled on the ground, shaking in fear, her eyes uncharacteristically wide as she stared at the monsters from behind her glasses. She was having a panic attack.

Sylphid was doing her best to protect her master, but with seven smaller various of the creatures, each with sharpened claws, the baby dragon was being overwhelmed. Axel could see claw marks on Sylphid's legs and the dragon tried to fend off the attacking dark creatures.

Axel was moving even before his mind had fully weighed the options. Screw the princess. He was not going to lose his friend, his family again, not for a slim chance like this.

Axel closed the distance between himself and Tabitha in a half second, bringing his blades through the monsters, cutting them to piece. "Tabitha. Are you alright?" Axel said in a worried tone as he faced outwards, throwing his blades at anything that tried to get too close it his friends.

Tabitha looked up at him, tears in her eyes. Axel was shocked by the display of emotion by the girl. "Don't let them take me." She whimpered.

Axel put a hand a free hand on her head. "Don't worry. I will never let them have you." Axel said gently even as he throw a fireball at a nearby creature, reducing them to ash.

"It has the princess!" Someone screamed. Axel looked up to see the giant holding the princess in its grasp just before it started to spin again, tunneling down into the ground.

Shortly after the boss disappeared the other monsters left as well. When Axel could no longer sense their darkness he turned back to Tabitha. "You alright. You aren't hurt are you?" He said as he quickly looked over her for any injures.

"Alright." She said as she started to regain her steady breathing. "Sorry." She mumbled.

"Don't be. Though I want an explanation later." Axel said with a sigh before ruffling the small girl's hair. "For know, your safe, that's all that matters."

"What are you talking about you fool!" Axel turned his head to see the blond knight he had saved on his way to the princess. For a second Axel was convinced that it was Larxene yelling at him again. "Why did you abandon the princess!"

"Wasn't my problem." Axel said simply as he turned his back on the woman. "Not my fault her body guards failed."

"Not your... that is treason!" Agnes shouted.

"Last I checked, neither myself nor my master are citizens of this country. Tabitha's safety took priority." Axel said, blowing off the knight.

"Sylphid." Tabitha said as she went to her injured familiar. Sylphid cued in a bit of pain as she bleed from several claw marks.

Axel moved up to the dragon. "Heal." He mumbled holding his hands to the dragon's cuts. Sylphid gave off a satisfied sigh as the green ribbons laced around her cuts, patching them together. "There, good as knew. How you feeling?" Axel asked the dragon. She gave a delighted cry and started to lick Axel's face.

"Teach me that later." Tabitha said, as she watched the heal spell at work.

"Sure thing." Axel said as he patted the dragons head.

"No he won't be. He is under arrest for treason, the damn fire mage." Agnes said angrily.

Axel looked at her over his shoulder with an annoyed expression. "Don't you have anything more important to do? I could have sworn your princess was just kidnapped right in front of you. You really should get on that."

Agnes gapped incredulously before she was interrupted.

"What were you doing!?" Louise shouted as she ran up to Axel. "You should have saved Henrietta!"

Axel glared at her, but Louise was to angry about him just abandoning Henrietta to care. "Tabitha takes priority." Axel said causing the small blue haired girl to blush. "After all, she is the one I have recognized as my master, not the princess, or you."

"No you idiot! The Princess always takes priority!" Louise shouted.

"Complain all you want, but I have made my choice." Axel said as he stood up. "But now that Tabitha is safe, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try to hunt down that thing that took your princess. I am rather curious as to what it was anyways." Louise and Agnes were slack jawed at the statement. That he would only save the princess because it happened to coincide with his curiosity.

Axel turned away from them and pulled out a bit of his own dark magic, luring out the creatures he needed. "Assassins!" He summoned. The mages who had all been watching him stumbled back as three silver creatures appeared out of the ground. Each one had a humanish form to it and was slumped over forward slightly. Steel blades hung from there arms like wings made of knifes.

"You called us, my liege?" One of the Assassin class Nobodies said in a hollow voice.

"A dark creature escaped from me using that hole over there." Axel said pointing to the hole that the monster had dug. "Find it and report back to me."

"At once, my liege." The Assassins all drowned together before sinking into the ground and going off on their assigned task.

"What the devil where those things!?" Agnes shouted, her eyes wide. But Axel didn't listen to her. He just opened up a Corridor of Darkness and led Tabitha and Sylphid through. They would wait on the ceiling and maybe Axel would get some answers as to why Tabitha had broken down earlier.

"Today was not my day." Axel mumbled to himself as the door to darkness closed behind him.

* * *

 **Complete chapter 4**


	8. Vanitas 2

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Vanitas's pale golden eyes watched the banquet from afar. The pig headed fools, believing that they are celebrating the coming of a new king, when really, they were at his funeral. It was to be his last day on this world. So Vanitas's master had declared, and as the master declares it, so the servant makes it be.

Vanitas's fingers drummed against the hilt of his keyblade, the darkness within both it and him screaming out in boredom. The happy seen as the second son of the late king stood with his wife and daughter was more than sickening to the boy whose heart had never known light.

Charles de La Orléans looked nothing like his brother. His face was narrower and clean shaven, his bright blue hair worn at shoulder length, his eyes and smile giving off a sort of hope that his brother had never had. Vanitas was looking forward to killing him.

Yes, he would kill Charles, just as his master had ordered him to. But there was no reason he couldn't have fun with the others. The golden orbs shifted of the would be king to two figures that stood nearby him. A proud woman with a face as gentle and marry as he husband's. Her long blue hair was worn straight and framed her natural beauty well. And her daughter, a child of a mere ten years who was the spitting image of her mother.

Yes, Vanitas would have fun with them.

The boy of darkness had never been much of a killer. Not because of any inherent distaste for death, but because he much preferred to torture his victims. He gained pleasure from watching them lose everything and crawl around sobbing as their lives fall apart around them, and they have to realize how truly worthless they are. Yes, Vanitas's favorite deaths are the ones were the fools take their own lives for him. Where he only has to watch and laugh.

But as the party went on, Vanitas caught himself staring at the little girl more and more. Her blue hair and eyes, her gentle face, the small and graceful smile she gave even the servants which could steer the emotions of even the most cold hearted of men. Vanitas couldn't help but to remember 'her'. Damn, how much the little brat looked like 'her', it made Vanitas sick. The memories of their dance of blades playing out in his mind. The smell of the ocean that she had carried with her.

No mater how much Vanitas tried, he couldn't forget about that stupid cow. The girl how had been like an elder sister to his 'better' half. The girl who never gave up no matter how much Vanitas tried to trick her and fool her. The girl who defied him and who had cost him everything. The Keyblade master, Aqua.

Vanitas could tell she was gone. Even if Vanitas had failed, Master Xehanort was far more that a silly girl like her could handle. Though the truth was, Vanitas wanted her. He wanted to be the one to break her. To strip alway all those things that she loved. To take away that light of hope that she held so close to her heart and drive her into despair. To have her begging for him to end her suffering, or perhaps for her to be driven so far down the path of sorrow to be turned into a heartless.

Vanitas shook himself from this thoughts. Aqua was gone. He couldn't have her. But if Aqua was to be out of reach, then he would just have to use a substitute. As the party led to a close, Vanitas grinned. "It's about time." He said, his voice cold and hollow.

A dark liquid formed around his head, completing the helmet that hid his face. As he stood up he let his power flow.

Dozens of Unversed started to form behind him, shifting around, each as greedy as their creature to go and destroy the lives of these people.

"Long live the king." Vanitas said with a sarcastic chuckle as his darkness spread. It was time for him to do his job.

* * *

Charles de La Orléans, or was it de Gallia now? He was still having trouble seeing himself as a king. It didn't feel right to call himself that. It was like a betrayal to his elder brother, the one who should have become king.

"Charles?" Charles glanced over to see his beloved wife, Catherine, looking to him with a concerned expression on her face. Her light sea green eyes searching into his own pale blue. "You don't want this, do you?"

Charles reached out and placed his hand on his wife's cheek. "I am sorry, my love, but this just isn't right. My father should not have named me his heir simply because my brother cannot preform magic." Charles said, trying and failing to keep the guilt from his voice.

"You know the reasons, Charles. If word of your brother's failings in magic became common knowledge, then the nation would suffer if he was king." Catherine said, telling Charles what he already knew.

"Perhaps, but I don't have to like it." Charles said, his voice a little cold from his hatred of the situation. "Magic should exist to help mankind, not to rule over him. My brother is clever, he would make a good king. So why is it that magic should be so important?"

"It is simply the way of the world." Catherine said sadly.

"Papa!" Charlotte shouted as she ran up wrapping her arms around her father's waste. She looked up at her father with her gentle smile and all the thoughts of succession melted away. "Is it true that you are going to be the king?" Charles's smile twitched slightly but he nodded. "Then I am going to be your knight!" Charlotte declared, stunning the parents.

"Charlotte! You can't be a knight." Catherine said pointedly.

"I will! I'm going to be a knight, and fight evil and protect Papa's kingdom. I'll slay the evil dragon and rescue the princess, just like Ivaldi." Charlotte said with a big smile.

"Charlotte, you are the princess." Charles pointed out.

"Then I will rescue myself." Charlotte said with a sharp nod.

"Well then, at least I don't have to worry if any evil dragons try to take my little girl from me." Charles chuckled.

"Don't encourage her." Catherine said, rolling her eyes, thought the Queen to be had a smile on her face. "It's late, so how about we get you to bed. It is far past your usual bed time."

"Real knights don't need to sleep." Charlotte pouted though she gave a small yawn.

"Even the bravest of knights need their sleep." Charles said as he scooped up his daughter and started to carry her to her room. Tucking her into bed he gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Sweet dreams, by brave little knight."

"I love you, Papa." Charlotte mumbled, already more than half asleep. It would be the last time she saw her father alive.

* * *

 **I'm not sure whether or not to actually show Vanitas killing Charles, driving Tabitha's mother to the point of insanity and torturing Tabitha herself.**

 **It is the case that horror is worse when you don't see it. So the implied torture is more disturbing than the real deal. Though I suppose if people ask me to actually write it, then I will.**

 **I'm compressing the Axel chapters to more eposidic lengths and am going to use the Xion and Vanitas chapters as sort of short** **intermissions**

* * *

 **I was reading the reviews for "Keybearers and Mages" and I noticed a guest being extremely rude about it. Saying that compared to "Heart in the Void" and "Heart of Familiar" it was garbage.**

 **Two things.**

 **First, not everyone on this site is an experienced story teller and everyone needs to start somewhere. The fact that they were willing to write anything at all and then show everyone their work shows courage. It took me an entire year to gather the stones needed to do that, and my first attempts at writing were pitiful.**

 **Second, why didn't you say "Rekindled Assassin"? Is mine just not good enough?**


	9. Fair Warning

**I know I have already labeled this story as rated 'M', but since it started as just 'T' and was bumped up I'm going to give you all a fair warning.**

 **I have started writing the next chapters for Axel story and it is going to be seriously rated 'M'. We are taking about beatings, torture, rape, the whole nine yards. So fair warning, if you don't feel comfortable with that, then stop right here and go no further.**

 **The first part will be up tomorrow, so mentally prepare yourself.**


	10. Axel 5

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Henrietta was shaking with fear, as she prayed again and again to the Founder that she would open her eyes and find that it was all just a terrible nightmare. But each time she didn't even have to open her eyes to know that it wasn't. She could smell the decay and rot that surrounded her in the small iron cage, and she could hear the heavy rasping breaths of her jailer as the monstrous creature glared at her through its eyeless helmet. Heat pouring off of its body in small waves.

The Princess would be hard to recognize as a princess in her current state. He wand had been snapped in two, her crown and royal cape were gone, and her pure white dress was covered in tears and dirt. She had no more of that noble posture or smile. She was a scared, trapped young woman, waiting for whatever was to come, and not knowing what was worse, the waiting without knowing, or what would actually happen when it did come.

Henrietta pried open one eye to glance up at her captor. Its giant form close by, never moving more than a few feet at a time. His massive form taking up a good deal of the rundown fortress where Henrietta was being kept. Cuts along its body bleed with a strange blue liquid, as if this monster was not truly of this world. Seeing her looking at it, the beast let out a low growl, scaring the princess so that she tried to push herself farther away from the creature, until her hand touched something smooth and brittle.

Henrietta swallowed and slowly pulled her hand away, making an effort not to look down at the bone that her fingers had blushed again. Bones littered the cage's floor, though Henrietta was fairly sure they were animal bones and not human, the sight and feel of them still horrified her. She did her best to remain calm, though she was not sure what good being calm could do for her in a situation as bleak as this.

"Are you comfortable, your majesty?" A cold and hollow voice echoed through the air, sending goose-bumps up and down Henrietta's neck and arms. Her eyes shot upon and she whipped her head around to stare wide eyed at a man who had seemed to materialize out of the shadows in the corner of Henrietta's cage.

The man was not that tall, but not short either, standing at an average height for a man of nineteen years. His clothes were perhaps the strangest Henrietta had ever seen, a sort of one piece, full body, black leather outfit with dark red lines on the chest. But even that seemed ordinary compared to the boy's hair and eyes. Henrietta shuddered at the sight of them and quickly looked at the ground. The dark black hair stuck out on all sides in odd directions, lines of gray sprinkled throughout it, giving him the appearance of a shadow that has come to life. And his eyes, they were pale golden orbs, completely void of mercy or regret, eyes that only a cold blooded monster could have.

"May, the princess won't even look at my face. I am such a hideous beast." The man said in a cruel tease.

"You won't get away with this." Henrietta said, only earning a long laugh out of the man.

"My how cliche can you get?" He laughed he started walking towards her with a cool, uninterested expression. Henrietta found herself wondering what to do. She couldn't run, she couldn't hide, and she refused to beg. So she stood as tall as she could as the man approached her. This turned out to be the wrong response as the back of the roughly gloved hand struck her in the face hard enough to draw blood from her lips and she was knocked from her feet and onto the ground, bones scattering as she landed on top of them. "You see, I've already gotten away with it. Or at least I will have in a moment."

Henrietta gagged on the taste of blood in her mouth, her ears ringing from the force of the impact. But over all of that, her mind still buzzed with fear. This man was going to kill her.

The dark figure burst into laughter. "I'm not going to kill you. There would be no fun in that, and it isn't your life my master if after anyways. You don't interest him at all."

Henrietta blinked in confusion. If it wasn't her life, then why go through all of the trouble of kidnapping her. But before she could draw any form of conclusions, the man stomped his boot onto the girl's hand.

Henrietta let out a shrill cry of pain as she felt the bones in her hand snapping underneath the heavy boot of the cruel man. She tried to pull her hand away, but he put more and more weight on it, laughing as Henrietta cried. Her eyes went to the man and the expression on his face was akin to that of a devil.

Next thing she knew, he lifted the foot, and kicked her in the face, knocking her over to cry on the ground. Her eyes were closed with the pain as she sobbed. Brief imagines of her crying as a child from a scrapped elbow flitted in and out of her mind. How foolish she had been to believe that was pain. She had never even known what pain was.

Her injured arm was pulled away from her chest and rough hands pulled at the broken fingers causing even more pain. "There, now I've got all I wanted." The man... no... the monster said with a cold laugh.

Henrietta struggled to open her eyes, to see what it had been that he had taken from her. Her heart went cold when she saw the small ring in his hand, the Ruby of Water, one of four rings that had been passed down in the royal families since the Founder had left this world behind. It was a symbol of the country, and more importantly to Henrietta, it was a symbol of her promise to Prince Wales.

"No... please." Henrietta said between sobs, reaching out for the small ring with her good hand. The that monster just grinned and kicked her again in the stomach.

Henrietta collapsed on the ground, trying and failing to replace the air in her lungs. But her gasps came to a stop when see felt cold metal pressed up against the side of her face.

Her eyes took a while to focus, and when they did she saw the man holding and oddly shaped black metal sword to her face, a cruel glare in his eyes, telling her that he didn't care for her at all. "Before I take my leave, tell me, who summoned the red haired man?" Henrietta's mind took a few seconds to recall who he was taking about, but then the image of her friend's familiar came to mind, his black cloak, red hair and bright green eyes, that cocky smile that made it seem like he was somehow above it all. "Tell me, did you summon him? Did you break the taboo and attempt the summon servant spell?"

"N...no." Henrietta said before she could think.

"Oh really, then who was it? Who summoned that familiar?" The man demanded.

Henrietta thought of Louise's face. Them playing together as little girls. The promises they had made to each other to always look after one and other. She couldn't sell her friend out. So she kept her mouth shut.

The man began to laugh. "Oh, so you won't tell me then?" He said, his blade cutting a small line on her cheek and he moved it down towards the center of her chest. "Good. It wouldn't be fun if you gave in too quickly." Henrietta let out a scream of shock as he pulled his blade down, cutting her dress open and leaving her body bare. She tried to cover herself, but the man grabbed her around the throat and lifted her off the ground, smashing her into on of the bars.

Before Henrietta could even react, his sword disappeared and his now free hand reached up and grabbed onto her ripe breasts, squeezing it hard, causing Henrietta even more pain. The man leaned into Henrietta to whisper in her ear. "You will find, that I can take everything you have from you." He said in a cold voice.

Henrietta wanted to shout, she wanted to fight back, but the hand around her throat stopped the words short, preventing anything from escaping her lips besides a pained moan.

"By the time I am done with you, you will be the one taking your own life." The monster laughed as his hands went down between the princess's legs, and drove in two rough fingers.

Henrietta gagged with pain as the beast started to rip at her soft flesh, until he started to draw blood. Tears poured down the princess's cheeks. And she wheezed the only words that came to mind. "Someone. Help me."

* * *

"Shit." Axel swore after Tabitha finally went to sleep. It had been hard for him to get the story about those monsters from her, not wanting to pressure her in her distressed state, but in the end he had pieced everything together.

When she was young, those monsters, along with a young boy who controlled them attacked her family, killing her father and doing something unspeakable to her mother. Considering Tabitha's reaction, he probably did something to her too. It all made sense. She hid her heart away because out the horrors of what had happened.

The detail that caused her the most pain was the memories of that boy, the one that controlled the dark creatures. Her memories of his cold golden eyes.

Axel sat behind the table of his expanded room, waiting for his servants to return. It was odd that they were taking so long. A being like that giant shouldn't be hard to track for his assassins. He could have done it himself, but he didn't want to leave Tabitha's side.

He stiffened when he felt someone approaching his barrier. He wondered if it was more of those creatures, or if the Princess's royal guard had decided to try to arrest him. He started to call on the fire that would block out all intruders, but then he recognized the feel of the person who was moving towards him. Her fire magic was rather strong, making Kirche as easy to spot as a torch in a dark room.

He figured she was a friend of Tabitha's and that she was just there to check on her. So Axel let her through, she was not too dangerous, and she was alone. Killing her would be easy if she decided to attack him.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Axel said sarcastically as he turned to the door. Kirche stood there in shock, looking around the room. She hadn't been to it since Axel had used magic to make it bigger.

"I... I came to see if Tabitha was doing alright?" Kirche said as she walked in. Her concern was clear as day on her face. "How is our little girl?"

"No worse than she was before." Axel said, believing that saying she was fine would be a lie, and an unproductive one. "She said that those creatures were the same ones that once murdered her father. Its easy to understand that she would be shaken after something like this."

"Her father was murdered!?" Kirche gasped. Axel made note of it. Tabitha didn't share to much about herself. That was no surprise really. "Why... why have I never heard of these monsters before?"

"How knows. I'm more concerned about who controls them." Axel said glaring off into space. "A boy with cold golden eyes that seem to radiate dark itself." He looked over at the confused girl. "I suppose you don't know the significance of eyes like that. I forget how little you people know about my kind of magic."

"What do you mean? What is the big deal about gold eyes? I've seen plenty of people with..." Kirche started by stopped as Axel turned towards her and she stared straight into his green eyes. It dawned on her that even though she had seen green eyes before, they were never anything like his. They seemed to glow from within with a unreadable power that sent a shiver up her spine.

"Eyes are a gateway into an individual's true nature. At least when it comes to the dichotomy of light and darkness." Axel said with a cocky grin as he knew his eyes had that kind of effect on people when he wanted them too. "When someone uses their body to channel magic, making themselves physically stronger than anyone could otherwise be naturally, their eyes change based on their natural affinity. If someone is by natural skilled in light magic, then their eyes become as blue as a crystal clear sky and hold a warm light that shines from within them." Axel just had to imagine Roxas or Xion's eyes. The blueness that seemed to eat away at the darkness. Then Xenmas's face appeared in his mind. "On the other side of the coin, someone with a natural affinity for darkness has eyes that are pale gold and eat away at the warmth inside anyone who looks at them. This boy who controls these creatures is definitely my kind of fighter, and he is definitely rotten to the core. More than likely, the princess is dead. And if she isn't, I feel sorry for her."

"What do you mean you are sorry for her if she isn't dead?" Kirche asked, trying to process what Axel had just said.

"There are things a lot worse than death. Take my word for it." Axel said remembering his own death. That hadn't been nearly as bad as some of the things he had seen in life. Physical, psychological and spiritual torture was far worse than anything death had.

"What about you?" Kirche asked, trying to change the subject. "What about your eyes? What do they mean?"

Axel smirked. "Green is the color you get when you mix yellow and blue. I am at a balancing point. My skill with dark magic is equal to my skill with light magic. I not truly of light or darkness. I do whatever is needed at the moment, without a care for good or evil. It is a fairly common color, among Nobodies like me." He said with a dismissive shrug. It was true, though not entirely. Since nobodies like him were reflections of their original selves, they maintained the look of those individuals, rather than gaining their own identifying magical eyes.

"Is that why you were able to leave Princess Henrietta so easily? Because you didn't care about doing the right thing?" Kirche said, more questioning than accusing. "Or was it because you love our little Tabitha too much?"

Axel's smirk faltered for a moment, not liking being called out on his attachment. Attachments were weaknesses. His years as an assassin had taught him that lesson well. "I think you mistake her usefulness to me for love. I enjoy her presence, but it is friendship, not love. Got it memorized?" Axel said, trying to keep his calm and working on what he needed to say. He hadn't been on this side of fence before.

"Oh really?" Kirche said, this time she was the smirking red head, and it was Axel's turn to wonder what her game was. "Well, either way, you should realize that Tabitha thinks of you as more than just a friend. I would know. A woman can tell about these kinds of things. You got that memorized?"

Axel's brow twitched at the use of his catch phrase against him. What did the girl mean 'more than just a friend'? Did she mean family, or maybe... oh god. "If you are done, maybe you should just skedattle before you test my patience." Axel said, keeping up his care free demeanor even as his mind was doing cartwheels.

"Fine, I'm going. But I should have known that no fire mage could be as cold hearted as you pretend to be. Deep down, you are just a fuzzy little bunny." Kirche said as she headed for the open arch out of the stable. But she stopped right before leaving. "Take care of her. She deserves the best, Axel." She said in a motherly tone before slipping out.

"Stupid girl knows nothing of fire." Axel spat. He had heard the girl talking about the flames of passion. 'Passion' was one thing that fire most definitely was not. Fire was greedy, thinking only of itself and damming the consequences. Fire was all consuming and would do anything to maximize its satisfaction, even at the cost of its own existence, and Axel was fire.

"No... mommy... leave her alone... daddy... please daddy..." Axel froze as he heard Tabitha whimpering in her sleep. A nightmare, drawn up by her resent experience with her father's killers.

"Tabitha." Axel mumbled as he watched the girl struggling against the enemies that were assaulting her in her heart and mind. He could remember seeing it, the pain of all her life's experiences clear as day in her bright blue eyes... Just like with Xion. Axel reached out, patting her head as she slept. "Sleep easy. I won't let anyone harm you tonight." He whispered to her, and she slowly stopped stirring, instead rolling over to grab at Axel's waist.

"Stay with me..." She mumbled in her sleep.

Axel felt his chest throbbing with pain and cursed his new found heart. But he did stay, placing and arm around the little girl and pulling her into a hug, using his arms to shelter her from the darkness that surrounded them.

As he closed his eyes, he could have sworn he heard Saix taunting him. " _What is it with you and picking up stray puppies?_ "

"Can't help it Isa, its their eyes." Axel mumbled as he himself drifted away.

* * *

Agnes and the remaining members of the Musket Squad moved as silently as possible towards the stables, swords and guns in hand. She felt it a little hard to believe that such a powerful mage would confine himself to a place meant for animals, but that just showed that he was a savage beast.

After her own short encounter with the fire mage, she went and gathered as much intelligence on him as possible. He wasn't just a traitor to Tristain, he was a monster, a heretic, and a psychopath. He was dangerous, and he had to be done away with.

"Captain, we have the place stacked out, and witnesses say that the criminal is indeed inside." Michelle, Agnes' lieutenant. She had moved up beside her leader along with three other Musket Squad members.

Agnes nodded. "Set up the smoke bombs. I want this done as fast as possible." Agnes said, her hard green eyes focused on the door of the stable, as if she expected it to be blown off its hinges at any moment. They had heard stories from the noble children of how terrifying this man was, but they were not foolish children. They were trained if fighting against mages and they would not fail.

"Do you think we can really beat him like this?"

"Of course, even the most powerful mages are helpless in their..." Agnes started by then stopped as she realize that it wasn't one of her soldiers who had asked the questions. She could hear a sort of low gargling sound and could smell the unmistakable smell of blood and burned flesh.

"I suppose your right. But you'd have to catch me asleep for that." Axel stood there behind Agnes, her four subordinates were all died, lying in a pill which the nobody of fire was sitting on as if it was a throne. Agnes had to stop herself from gagging when she saw what was in his right hand. The last moments of shock where edged into Michelle's face as her severed head dripped blood onto the ground. Axel held it up by its dark blue locks, a smug smile of victory plan on his face.

"You bastard!" Agnes shrieked in rage as she grabbed her sword, pulling it from its sheath.

"Gravity." Axel said in an almost disinterested tone. A small dark sphere coming from his hand, almost invisible in the night against his black coat.

Agnes was pulled to the ground hard as it felt like a dragon was being placed on her shoulders. She could hardly breath as her ring-mail dug into her body, tearing her skin. She could hardly keep herself on hands and knees as her light metal shoulder pads tried to drag her down to the earth, and the metal boots were digging into the ground under their own weight.

"You know, if you had just turned and walked away, I would have let you live. But you insisted on coming after me, and I can't have that." Axel said in mock disappointment, shaking his head side to side. "A pity, I saved your life, and now I'm going to take it."

"Fuck... you." Agnes gasped as she used all the strength she had to leave her single shot pistol on Axel's head. The bang from the gun echoed in the night air as Agnes pulled the trigger.

Axel hardly even reacted, simply lifting one of his chakrams to swot the bullet out of the air. "You might as well just stop. You aren't making the best cause for yourself as to why I should let you live." Axel said watching Agnes' angry eyes. Not a single sliver of fear in them, just raw hate. "Why do you hate me so?"

"You abandoned the princess." Agnes managed to growl as she continued to struggle against the weight that held her to the ground.

"For real? Is that the reason? I am pretty sure that was your job." Axel said, dropping the lieutenant's head to the ground and getting up off of his seat of bodies to stand over the girl. He looked down at her, watching as she struggled to get up and kill him. "You remind me... of Larxene." Axel said as a dream like expression crossed over his face. It was true, if he just squinted a little, he could hardly tell the difference between the two short haired blonds. "She was a bitch too, who died for the sin of angering a power that was beyond her."

Axel reached forward and grabbed Agnes by the neck, pulling her up off her feet as though she weighed nothing at all, even though the gravity spell was still activated. Agnes' heavy sword fell to the ground with a small crash. "If you expect me to beg, then you are wrong." Agnes spat, her look of pure hatred never leaving her face.

"Wasn't expecting you to. But in all honesty, it is better for me if you and yours all just turn up missing than having all of your corpses on hand. After all, with you all rushing out like this to rescue the princess, it is just a tragedy that you were slaughtered by the monster that took her. But with a little hope that some of your ranks might still be alive, someone could win favor with the princess by using all of their power to find you." Axel said with a smug grin.

Agnes was having a hard time understanding what the man was saying, until she felt something cold brushing against her back, slowly wrapping around her body. Axel gave a sad shake of his head as he pushed the princess's bodyguard backwards into an opened Corridor of Darkness, watching as the murky blackness surrounded her and swallowed her whole.

"Goodbye, you raging bitch." Axel's voice echoed in Agnes' ears as her vision faded to black. "If you want to live, you better start running. If you can get to the exit before the darkness catches you, you can still make a life on the other side."

* * *

The world around her was cold. So very cold. Feeling as if it was reaching into her and grabbing a hold of everything that she had used to keep herself going and taking if from her.

Agnes shivered uncontrollably as she looked around with wide eyes. She was on a narrow path that could easily be seen underneath her feet, even though it had no color and was surrounded on all sides by darkness so thick that it could never had seen the light.

"What in the Founder's name?" Agnes swore as she looked around at what could only be described as hell in her mind. Her eyes and spirit being pulled into the darkness around her as her eyes disparately tried to find an end. A giggling like sound shocked her out of her search. The sound had been close, but where had it come from?

Agnes gave a cry of pain as she felt something sharp digging into her leg. Looking down she saw shadows moving within the greater darkness. Small creatures with large golden eyes that deemed to eat away at her courage as they crawled around her. "No! Get off of me!" Agnes shouted, trying to kick the creatures away, but her attempts to hit them were as effective as an attempt to swot away air. Panic started to raise up in her chest as larger and larger pieces of darkness formed within this world of evil and started to close in on her. Glowing blue lines on their forms showing open mouths with shadows that formed teeth, long fingers stretched out in front of them like giant claws, reaching out for her.

She needed to get away, but she couldn't, they were everywhere. She tried to pull herself free of the smaller beasts but her legs would no longer move. She couldn't even feel them. Finally as one of the larger shadows raised up a clawed hand she realized, she was going to die. "I failed you, my Princess." The dark fingers drove themselves down into Agnes' chest, releasing a large spray of blood as the fingers reached down into her.

The last thing that Agnes would ever see, was a large ruby red crystal in the shape of a heart flouting out of the wound in her chest, before being consumed by the surrounding darkness.

* * *

Axel stood calmly at attention behind his small master as they entered the dining hall for breakfast. Tabitha had recovered from her fright and after some time, she walked with her old purpose and her quiet look.

The air was filled with gossip, even to the point where some people had not quieted at Axel's approach, not wanting to waste a second to talk about recent events. No just about the princess's kidnapping, but the sudden disappearance of her entire personal guard.

The theories about it were divided. Some said that the guard was attacked by the monsters from the other day and that they ate the corpses to make sure that their was no trace of them. Others said that they had all left in the night, not wanting to waste a single moment to look for the Princess Henrietta. Still others had crazy theories that the guards were somehow involved with the monsters and were running away before people could find out. A few people had pointed the finger of blame at Axel, but without evidence, it was not taken anymore seriously than the others.

Reaching her usual spot, Axel pulled out the chair for Tabitha to seat her before taking the seat next to her. One of the reasons why no one but Kirche still sat anywhere near those seats at the dining table, and occasionally Louise, trying to over come her fear through something she called 'the rule of steel'.

Today seemed to be one of the days that Louise would swallow her fear of Axel and attempt to eat nearby. More than likely in a hope to get news of her Princess. Not that Axel cared whether she was there or not.

"Good morning, Tabitha. It's nice to see you are well." Kirche said with her usual smile. The motherly one that she used on Tabitha whenever she was concerned for the introverted girl.

"Yes." Tabitha said simply with a nod as she started to eat her breakfast. Kirche wasn't fooled. She knew Tabitha well enough to know when something was wrong, so even with the limited signals, she could tell that the girl was still a bit jumpy. For one thing, she actually said yes instead of just nodding, and for another, she didn't have a book open as she ate.

"So, all of the classes today are canceled because the whole school staff is being preoccupied by the... well you know. So I was hoping that we could go shopping together in town today." Kirche said, clapping her hands together. Tabitha didn't answer, just looked down at her plat, eating a little slower, to show that she had heard, and that she didn't like the idea. "Oh pretty please? I promise I won't try to force you to wear anything pink or frilly this time."

Tabitha was silent for another moment before responding. "Promise?"

"I promise you on my family name." Kirche grinned before leaning down to whisper into the girls ear. "And who knows, you might find something that Axel would like to see you in."

Tabitha had a small blush on her stiff face, glancing over at Axel who seemed to not be listening as he surveyed the room for anyone foolish enough to attack them. But everyone quickly avoided his green eyes. Showing that they were still to scared to even think about approaching him for an attack. His short fight with the giant monster and his display at the Exhibition had been enough to further implant a seed of fear in the students.

Tabitha was thinking about whether or not she could impress Axel with a nice dress, or what kind of style he would even like when Louise smashed her hands on the table. "How can you talk about a shopping trip at a time like this!?" She asked angrily. "The Princess is missing!"

"I know, but it isn't like sitting around here threating about it is going to bring her back. Why not try unwind a little." Kirche said with a shrug. Louise looked like she was going to shout again, but Axel cut her off.

"Until my scouts come back with information about the enemy's location, I can't exactly go after them." He said in a disinterested tone of voice. "You real should just kick back. It isn't like you could do anything even if you knew where she was."

"So you want us to just leave it to those things of yours! What even are they!?" Louise demanded of the red haired man. To shaken from worry to be properly scared of him.

"Sounds like someone is forgetting who is in charge here." Axel said in a disapproving voice, glaring at the pink haired girl until she backed off. Finally he decided to answer. "They are Nobodies, just like I am."

Kirche started to giggle. "You are just going to try to sell them and yourself off as nothing important?" She said with a skeptic look.

"I'm saying no such thing. Nobody is actual the name of our race. Just like yours is Human and Flame is a Salamander, we are Nobodies." Axel said with a twisted smile.

"You... you're one of those creatures?" Louise gasped.

Axel started to chuckle. "Though we are both part of the same species, I'm in a whole other tier from them. They are next to witless creatures, operating on instinct alone. Without my control they would more than likely just sit around on their asses all day doing nothing but gathering dust in the emptiness." Axel said rolling his eyes. "Comparing me to them is like comparing an full grown adult to a newborn baby."

Kirche and Louise both seemed shocked that Axel wasn't really human, but Tabitha had been told that a while ago. She didn't care. No mater what he was, he still was Axel.

Axel felt a shifting underneath the ground and a small smile passed over his face. "It seems one of them has come back." He said, standing up and turning around to meet his Assassin.

There were gasps of panic and fear as the silver creature started to move up out of the ground. Even Axel was a bit surprised when he saw the condition it was in.

Though the Assassin was standing tall and showed no sign of being in any pain, it was missing one arm and dark red blood dripped from the ripped off limb. "My Leigh, I have returned." The Assassin said as it went to one knee.

"So you found them then?" Axel asked, seeming not to care that his servant was dying right in front of him. The Nobody nodded. "Good." Axel said before driving a hand into the Nobodies chest. There were screams of horror through the room as the Nobody fell to the ground and started to dissolve into black smoke.

"What the hell was that?" Louise shouted in shock along with several other students.

"His body was to damaged to lead us there, so I simple took what I needed." Axel said holding up a card with the picture of an arena. "The memory of where he found the princess. This is all I really need."

"So you just... killed him?" Kirche said a bit shocked.

"Don't feel sorry for it. A Nobody is just an empty shell void of heart. We have no emotions or feelings. The weaker ones like this don't even have solid memories, or a drive to exist. Nothing was lost when it died. In a few minutes, you won't even be able to remember it. That's the fate of a Nobody." Axel said as he started to walk away.

A small hand pulled on his black sleeve. "Where?" Tabitha asked, looking up at him with her blue eyes.

"I'm going to go and put down the guy who is in control of those monsters, and rescue the princess while I'm at it." Axel said in a calm voice.

Tabitha's lower lip twitched slightly. "Take me." She said in her steady voice.

Axel looked down at the girl. She was scared. He knew she was. So why was she offering to go with him? "No. It's better if you just stay here. I can handle it myself." Axel said with a smile, reaching forward and patting the girl's head. "I know you're worried, but I can handle myself. I will always comeback for you, so keep your chin up."

A corridor of Darkness opened up and Axel passed through it, closing it behind him, leaving the shocked students to try to figure out what had just happened, and leaving Tabitha standing their with a slightly distressed look. "Please... don't leave me..."

She stood still for a few seconds, before running in a very un-Tabitha like fashion towards the stables and Sylphid. She had to help Axel. She couldn't stand to lose him too.

* * *

 **Chapter 5 complete.**

 **Plans for Agnes's body that might make you wonder whether or not Axel planned it all.**


	11. Xion 3

**I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.**

* * *

Xion's face rested against the cold glass window of her room, looking out over the city below. She watched the travels in the streets going about their business, unaware of her pelite.

The room was warm and well furnished, with a large and comfortable bed, which Xion never slept in, a richly decorated cabinet filled with all kinds of dresses and gowns that Xion never willingly wore, a table which she refused to eat at until either hunger or her 'Master's' orders forced her to eat. The room was fit for a princess, but Xion felt more like a caged bird.

It was actual the second such room. The first one had been completely destroyed the first time her 'Master' had stepped away from her. She had been order to stay in it, so in a fit of rebelliousness, she had destroyed the room and injured the guards who had been made to watch her. But she 'Master' had ordered her never to do that again. So as much as she wished to, she couldn't lift a finger against her cage. Whenever she tried to, the runes on her hand would burn and the fight would drain out of her.

She hated it. Every night she would huddle up in a corner and cry herself to sleep. She didn't want to be someone's thing. She wanted her freedom back.

The door to her prison opened and Xion tried to harden her eyes and heart as she heard the guards announce the arrival of her owner. "His Holiness, Vittorio Serevare."

Xion stared with empty eyes as the tall young man walked proudly into her little world, his long blond hair hanging out over his white robes, looking the same as he always had. He smiled at her, as if they were some kind of friends instead of him owning her life. "Good morning, Xion. You look lovely today." He said, his eyes passing over her body, making her shiver with a revolution she didn't understand.

She was dressed in a beautiful pale blue gown with feather like designs stitched into the fabric around the arms, giving the impression that she had the wings of a bird rather than normal arms. Like everything she had been given to wear, it seemed like the kind of thing one gives to a princess going to a ball, but it just reinforced the notion in Xion's mind that she was just a doll to them, one that they could play dress up with and make to look pretty in order to please them. It made her feel sick.

"I would prefer my old clothes." Xion said, doing her best to sound as frustrated and angry as possible.

But the Pope merely shook his head, his face holding the same smile it always did, the one that seemed to be so gentle, but so hollow. As if he was a Nobody, play acting at having human emotions. "Those black robes don't suit you. You are our angel, sent from Brimir in order to light humanity's way to a brighter future. How can you do that if you are always in a dark cloak that restricts your beauty." The holy man said. Xion didn't answer, she had to fight down a reaction of her body to his words. She couldn't let herself feel for this man, not the man who owned her. After a moment of silence he spoke again. "The Cardinals and I are all in agreement, it is time for us to reveal you to the entire world so that everyone can see your power and gather under your guiding light."

"And then what? What is it that you want with me? Why can't you just let me..?" Xion started, but the runes sent a wave of their influence to block out the thought, leaving an empty feeling in its wake.

"Xion. You do not see it now, but you are the answer to our prayers. A way for mankind to take back the Holy Land from the elves." Her 'Master' said, placing his hand on her cheek, making her want to pull away, though the runes would not let her. What made it worse was the look in his eyes. A sort of desire that she couldn't understand written on his face. "I am going to send some of the sisters to help you prepare for the gathering tonight. You will do whatever it is that they tell you." The order sent a sting into Xion's mind as she knew she couldn't help but to obey. "We will start as the sunsets, the best time for your light to out shine even the heavens."

Vittorio left, and Xion was alone again with her thoughts. She was a weapon to him. A tool of war to take back some kind of Holy Land. So that was it, she was just a weapon. Just like before with... with...

Xion's thoughts hit a wall. She could not remember when she had been only seen as a weapon before. But she was sure that there had been a time... at least, she thought there had.

Before she could continue any further down this path, the nuns came into the room and pulled her away to bath her, ignoring her protests that she could wash herself.

As the nuns scrubbed way at her pale skin, causing her to fall into fits of laughter as they touched her more sensitive spots, she could only think how much she hated this world.

* * *

Vittorio walked out onto his pedestal, gazing down at the thousands of believes who had flocked to witness the unveiling of their religious leader's Familiar. He could almost feel the hope and willingness to hold up his flag, to die for him if needed. They were his army of the faithful, and it was up to him to lead them.

"Children of Brimir, I look out upon you all, and I cannot help but to feel envy." Vittorio said, placing one hand over his chest as his voice carried over all others. "I envy your faith. Your ability to hold on believing in Brimir. Believing that he is just and powerful when we are forced to live in fear of the elves which hold out own sacred soil. For though I am Brimir's own messenger, even I must struggle against the cold fingers of doubt and fear." Whispers started up at this unforseen confession. They had taken the bait, and all attention was on him. Now he just had to do the reveal. "But you all gave me the strength that I needed to keep believing, and our patients and faith have been rewarded."

Vittorio stepped to the side so that Xion could walk out in front of him, straight out to where everyone could see her. She was beautiful. More beautiful than any mortal girl could ever have been. Her inner light glowed, reflecting off of the pearly white dress that she had been instructed to wear, the feather like patterns glittering with each step. Though even at the close quarters that Vittorio was to her, he was almost convinced that they were real.

It took the Pope a moment to remember the introductions. "Behold, for Brimir has delivered onto us an angel who's light with lead us back to our promise land." Vittorio said, glancing out onto the crowd. There were cheers, but not enough of them. Some people still doubted. "Our angel of light, show us your power. Show the faithful the key that will grant us our salvation."

Xion trembled as she fought against the order, but soon she raised her hand above her head and her Keyblade appeared in a blinding flash of light. The small girl closed her eyes and a beam of light jumped from the tip of the blade, flying up into the sky before erupting in a web of multicolored lights that lit up the sky as the sun set in the distance. Ribbons of her divine light stretching out over the heavens so that the display could be seen for miles around.

The faithful gasped as the light filled the sky. Magic of a type and scale that had not been seen since the time of the Founder. Even Vittorio was struck dumb with awe at the beauty and power. The light of the instrument that Brimir had sent to them. The shield of God himself.

And yet, he was the only one who could see it. He was the only one close enough to see her tremble, trying to escape the need that the runes placed in her to obey Vittorio orders. The look of pain and sadness in her young eyes, as if the holy man was stamping all over her heart.

Why? Why was it that she refused to accept her place as their savior? Why did she hate being his familiar so much?

Was it one final test from Brimir? Was the god seeing if his servant would do whatever it takes to insure that his divine will was cared out, even if he had to do it over the tears of sobs of the women and children? Or was it that this angel wished to be free to make her own choices, to lead the faithful of Brimir herself? He had given her every imaginable comfort, said every word he knew to bewitch people into his service, and yet she still did not love him.

His eyes moved over her small body. She was so beautiful. A fact that made it hard to ignore her every shiver and look of pain. But Vittorio would not falter. He would never stop on his holy path. He had never hesitated before, even condemning his own mother and an entire village of completely innocent people to die a horrible death in a blazing inferno, all in order to further his cause.

He would make Xion realize her place was by his side, no matter what he had to do to insure it.

* * *

Xion sat on the floor in the corner of the cage she had been provided with, staring up and out the window at the birds flying about in the sky; so uncaring, so free.

She wished she could leave. Just escape this world and never return. But even if she managed to overcome the power of the runes that bound her to that man, she had lost her Organization coat. She didn't know if she could survive using the Corridor of Darkness to travel between whole worlds without it. Though at the moment, jumping to the other side of the country sounded very appealing.

She shivered a bit, pulling her legs in to try to keep warmer. Rather than giving her normal clothes, they had placed her in a thin purple silk gown on her return. She didn't understand why. It was so cold, and it didn't seem to cover much since you could almost see right through it.

But she had no power to resist. Her 'Master' could do whatever he wanted with her, and she couldn't even question his orders.

"His Holiness, Vittorio Serevare." Xion flinched at the familiar introduction as the door opened and the monster himself stepped in. Wearing that same expression on his face, as if he was blameless in everything. Like he thought himself to be some kind of Saint.

"Isn't rather late for your visits." Xion said bitterly. It was almost the middle of the night. He shouldn't have been there. Something inside of Xion felt that something was very wrong, but she didn't know what it was.

"I wished to see you, our Angel." Vittorio said, his expression not changing. The Pope glanced over at his attendant. "Leave us. And tell the guards to be off as well."

The attendant seemed shocked. "Your Holiness, we cannot leave you ungua..."

"I will not be unguarded. I am in the presence of the shield of god. I couldn't be more safe." Vittorio said. Xion didn't like this. She didn't want to be alone with this man.

The attendant looked for the Pope to the young girl, a strange understanding in his face. One that Xion didn't like. "As you wish." He said with a bow before leaving Xion alone with her 'Master'.

A few seconds passed as a shuffling sound outside of the door marked the guards leaving the area. Xion and Vittorio were all alone.

"You were wonderful out there tonight." Vittorio said to the young girl who tried to pull herself further into her corner, only to be stopped by a command. "Come here, Xion. Sit on your bed."

She tried to resist, she tried to pull away, but the runes were too strong for her. She felt her arms and legs pushing her to her feet before taking her towards her bed and closer to the man, one step at a time.

She sat there in front of him, trying to close her eyes against the world. But they snapped open when she felt his hand on her cheek. He was looking down on her with his steel gray eyes. He leaned over her, nearly two heads taller than her. Not as tall as many in the Organization, but tall enough to make her uncomfortable.

"Xion, a Familiar is meant to belong to their master, both body and soul." He said as he caressed her cheek. She wanted to pull away, but she couldn't. Something in her heart was telling her that this was all wrong. She wanted to scream, to hit him, to runaway. But in the end she just sat there in blank horror. "I have given you everything. You will be loved and worshipped by thousands. You will live in comfort for all your life. Your name will be written into history as the one that lead us to the promise land. So why... why do you resist me. Tell me, Xion."

Xion shook her head slowly as she tried to resist the order, but she told him. She told him, even though she wasn't sure of it herself. "You don't own my heart."

The Pope looked at her with his gray eyes, scanner her face and body. "Then... I will make you love me." He said leaning forward even farther, bending down towards her.

Xion's spirit was screaming in protest as his mouth came closer and closer to hers. Every fiber of her being trying to resist him. Her runes were heating up, forcing her to remain still as her will tried to break free.

"No... Axel... Roxas... Sora..." Xion mumbled off names of the people she knew who might help her. She wanted to get away. She was struggling against this. Her chest was hurting as her heart struggled against the runes that held her still.

Then, as Vittorio Serevare, lips pressed against her own for a second time, she felt her vision fading to black as the pain in her chest exploded.

* * *

 **Alright, the Pope is dying, and Axel gets his Keyblade.**

 **To whoever said that Axel getting a Keyblade is overdone, I must call you a liar. Not enough people write for Axel for it to be overdone.**


End file.
